Little White Lies
by Luthien Saralonde
Summary: REUPLOADED WITH ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S PERMISSION! Lucius Malfoy, ex-Death Eater and father to a very demanding fifteen month old son, didn't think for an instant his life could get any harder than it already was. But when the Daily Prophet announces the Boy Who Lived is still missing, Draco and Narcissa are adamant he be found and brought to live with them. Read and review!
1. Chapter 1

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE - MUST READ FIRST!**__** This story is being republished with permission from the author, who wishes to remain anonymous. All original eleven chapters belong to her, with only minor edits from me to tighten up grammar and spelling. After chapter eleven, the rest belong to me. :) Enjoy, and let me know what you think!**_

_**-Laerwen**_

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Chapter: 1

Disclaimer: Nope. Not blonde. Not Scottish. Not JK Rowling.

A/N: Something seems to have happened to my other stories, so, I'm going to try a new one. I think I've still got the High Hogwarts story saved, but the one about Lily getting tossed forward in time, I can't find anywhere :-(

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Lying was nothing new to Lucius Malfoy – neither was being convincing. Duplicity was part of his family legacy and motto. Of course "Whatever it takes" on the family crest was only visible to someone who was a true Malfoy. To everyone else, the words were much nobler a sentiment... but he didn't bother to learn the public version. He was used to getting what he wanted, and it didn't much matter what it took to achieve it.

And what he wanted was a wife who wasn't screaming at him ninety-percent of his waking life. He figured meals accounted for the other ten-percent, though Narcissa hadn't had much of an appetite lately.

First news of the Dark Lord's fall, and then that deplorable cousin of hers getting sent to Azkaban. It was all Lucius could do to survive in his own house. Narcissa had never been much of a true believer when it came to Death Eater ideals, but one thing she understood was image. It didn't matter that no one could prove anything where they were concerned, having their family whispered about was enough to set her teeth on edge.

He'd wanted a suitable distraction, but the opportunity never presented itself - not until the morning paper arrived a week earlier with the headline "The Boy Who Lived, Then Disappeared".

Lucius had breathed free for the first time in weeks. He thought now the gossip mongers and rag magazines would turn their attention to speculation about the Potter whelp and leave him free to live his life, but that would have made things easier on him, and that, Fate simply wouldn't allow.

"Who dat?" Draco asked from his high chair as the baby boy whose photo adorned the front page made faces at him over breakfast.

"A boy who's gone missing," Lucius answered off-handedly.

"Go find 'im!" the young Malfoy ordered.

The photograph blew a raspberry, so Draco saw fit to fling porridge at him.

"No one knows where to look," Lucius explained, and turned the page. There was only one small mention on the back of page eight, and it didn't even mention Malfoy or his family by name. Just the, comparatively tame, "suspected Death Eaters" that were supposedly hiding out among the population. It seemed the storm had passed.

"Go find 'im!" Draco said, more shrilly this time.

Being misplaced was a new terror of the toddler's. One of the house elves had left him in the pantry chewing on a sugar snap, then gone off to make new curtains or some such. Three hours later, the poor child was still on the floor and howling out a wail that could shame a banshee.

"GO FIND 'IM!" Draco screamed, and the rest of the porridge landed as free form spatter around the room... including on his father's head.

"Find who, Poppet?"

Narcissa glided into the room and plucked Draco from his high chair before handing him off to a much more careful house elf to be bathed.

"Go find 'im, pweeeeze." Draco sniffled as he toddled off after the house elf that was currently taller than him. "Make 'im come pway wifs me."

"What was that all about?" Narcissa asked, more sedate than she had been since they'd gone on high alert due to the chance of public disgrace.

"It seems your son took a liking to a certain golden boy's photograph, and is now terrified that he's locked in a pantry somewhere at the mercy of lackluster house elves."

"So he's my son today?"

"Of course. If he were mine, he'd have better taste in playmates."

"I've seen the paternity tests, Lucius, he's yours. Anyone else would have been born with a smaller ego and I might still have my figure." She grinned at him over her coffee cup.

Thank God, the storm was passing.

"Now what's this about the Potter boy and house elves? Did one of James' elves take the child and hide him?"

"Perhaps. No one's seen him since..." He didn't have to fill in the rest. "I'm not entirely sure Potter had any of his family elves in Godric's Hollow, though. They were trying to keep a low profile, it seems."

"Then where is the boy?" Narcissa had "that" tone. The one she took when contemplating a new charitable endeavor, and Lucius felt his heart actually stop for a full half beat. This was not going to be pleasant.

"That's precisely the story, my dear, no one seems to know where the child's gone off to."

"But James Potter had no living relatives, and as for his wife... you don't think the boy was taken in by her people, do you?"

"I couldn't begin to imagine," Lucius said, and hoped he sounded bored enough that she'd lose interest.

"But... but they can't! The child could be... I mean to be placed in a home like that, he could... it's too terrible to think about!"

"I'm sure the secrecy is for the boy's safety and that he's been placed in a satisfactory environment. It's none of our concern, Cissy."

That was the absolutely wrong thing to say.

"None of our concern!" She shot to her feet and snatched his paper away. The baby Potter on the front crumpled in half, and was none too happy with the arrangement. "That boy was my cousin's godson! Did you know that?"

"Then maybe he'll be able to visit if they put in a lounge at Azkaban!" And that was just plain stupid. How could he have let that thought leak out of his mouth?

Narcissa turned an odd shade of greyed purple that for one odd minute he thought would look lovely if they could match it for carpet. Of course, he was likely to be struck dead in a few seconds by something a much less appealing shade of green, so no one else would ever know.

"That boy is practically mine by rights and I want him!"

"Be reasonable, Cissy." Lucius backed away from her fury. "If you want him in a suitable family, we can surely locate him and make sure he's all right, but, well, we have Draco and he's such a young child himself..."

"The perfect age for a playmate. He and the Potter boy were practically born the same day. I want him."

"If it's a matter of saving him from Muggles, then there's always your sis-"

"YOU THINK I WOULD LEAVE A CHILD WITH THAT... THAT..."

"Not Bella, Cissy."

"I DON'T HAVE ANOTHER SISTER!"

She'd disowned Andromeda for marrying that Tonks fellow, and apparently they rated below Muggles on the suitable caregiver scale.

"I want him Lucius. Find him... if nothing else, think about how children make for good press."

"Cissy..." He didn't believe that excuse for one minute. This was simply her fixation of the moment, and she wouldn't let it go until he gave in.

"No! You will do this for me. You will do it because I let you go off and play Death Eater and didn't complain. I let you get that foul thing burned on your arm and I still haven't told anyone about it. I'm clean; I could turn you in to the Aurors and Draco and I could live comfortably right here in your house while you rot between my insane sister and my worthless cousin. And you will do this for me because I am your wife, and whether you want to admit it or not, this conversation has made you love me just a little bit more than you did yesterday."

Well, it definitely made him fear her a little bit more than he did yesterday...

"Just think of the advantage of the situation, Lucius. IF you were ever discovered, to have been a capable and caring guardian of The Boy Who Lived would go a long way to providing leverage for your innocence and having seen the error of your ways. And, should things swing back the other way, I'm sure you can see the advantages of having the same boy look to you for guidance."

She was right... he did love her and her devious mind. Narcissa may not have been born a Malfoy, but she certainly took to the role with aplomb.

And so, he found himself standing beside a magnificent black car in a less than magnificent ... what was it called... middle suburban something or other neighborhood, in the appropriately named Little Whinging area. He felt like whinging just waiting there, but wait was all he could do as whatever protections had been set on the house made certain he couldn't get close enough to enter so long as the Dark Mark was on his arm.

Narcissa and Draco had gone ahead, and approached a reluctant lady of the house.

* * *

***Meanwhile, on the House's Terrace***

* * *

It took Narcissa Malfoy exactly four Floo calls to locate the new home of one Harry James Potter. Using her considerable charity connections, she was put in touch with someone, who was put in touch with someone, who was put in touch with someone who had access to something called a telephone, which led her to Petunia Dursley (née Evans) and Privet Drive.

She and Lucius had planned on approaching the family together, but the instant his arm started burning, they knew that wouldn't be possible. Apparently whoever had hidden the child had the foresight to protect him... sort of.

Narcissa approached the house with Draco on her hip, both dressed in their finest impersonation of wealthy Muggles. (she had a sneaking suspicion that "blue jeans" were going to become a staple at her house, like it or not) She rang the bell and waited a few moments until a somewhat horse faced woman in a pink house dress answered the door.

She and Lily Evans had never been friends, but, even she was familiar enough with Potter's wife to realize only one daughter in the family had gotten any looks out of the gene pool.

"Yes?" Petunia asked sweetly, after accessing the apparent quality of the people on her terrace. "Can I help you?"

"Mrs. Dursley?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes?"

"Sister of Lily Potter?"

Petunia tried to slam the door in her face, and only the physical barrier around the house kept Lucius at bay.

"Draco, go back to your father." Narcissa set him down and pointed her finger.

"But...'

"NOW!"

Draco knew that tone. He ran back to his father and hid behind his legs. The horse faced lady didn't know what she was in for.

Narcissa knocked this time, dropping her hand into her pocket to wrap around her wand, and the door opened a crack.

"H-h-he said none of your kind would come near the house," Petunia stuttered. "He s-s-said if we took the boy no one would come!"

"Who?" Narcissa asked, trying to convince herself the woman was only protecting the child. She probably thought the Malfoys were there to harm him... like she'd take her son along if she wanted to murder someone.

"It was all in the letter that Dumb Door left with the boy."

Dumb Door? Dumb... oh...

"Dumbledore brought the boy here?"

The door still didn't open and Narcissa's inner voice had begun to chant: I will not transfigure Muggles in public... I will not transfigure Muggles in public...

"Left him on our doorstep with no warning," Petunia said. "Put us all in terrible danger without even bothering to ask!"

"Mrs. Dursley, that's what I'd like to talk to you about... if I could just come inside."

"Oh no," Petunia said. "You wouldn't want to do that. My husband is very particular about... well... people like you. I had to talk him out of buying a-" she dropped her voice to a whisper, "gun when the boy arrived."

If Narcissa'd had any doubts about taking the child - by force if need be - they'd just vanished. Staying with this lot was liable to turn the boy into a Squib by the time he was due at Hogwarts.

"Mrs. Dursley," she said in her most civil tone. "It's obvious you're overwhelmed by this, especially after losing your sister."

Petunia Dursley's mouth shrunk down like she'd swallowed a pint of pickle juice. So there was no love lost between the Evans girls. Maybe this wouldn't be so difficult after all.

"When Dumbledore left the boy here, I'm sure he thought you were his only family."

"You mean we aren't?" Petunia seemed to brighten.

"Not at all. The boy was the son of my cousin."

Son, godson, whatever. Narcissa was so used to lies of the coal black variety that a small white one tasted like candy on her tongue.

"And since we are a family of means, and have a child the same age, we... my husband and I... were hoping that you might not be adverse to a change of guardianship..."

"You'd raise him yourself?"

"With my family, yes."

"Away from here, where the boy wouldn't be near my Dudders?"

"Dudders?"

What on earth was that? Did she have some sort of speech impediment and was attempting to pronounce daughters?

"My son Dudley. If you take the boy, Dudley would never see him."

Interesting that she'd yet to call the child by his name.

"Well, if you wanted to arrange a time for the boys to interact, we could arrange..."

"NO!" Petunia almost roared. "If you take him, you keep him. Keep him with your lot, among his own kind. I want to forget he even existed.

"That, Madame is as easily done as said."

Minutes later, the atrociously filthy boy that was Harry Potter had been retrieved from his so-called nursery under the stairs and thrust into Narcissa's arms. She still hadn't been asked into the house.

A quick Oblivate would ensure that Petunia couldn't recall to whom she'd given the child, and an even quicker Scourgify removed the filth from the child. It would take seeing a healer to get rid of his diaper rash, and the boy was tragically under weight.

Narcissa stalked back to the car with the boy snuggled down in her arms as half formed Unforgivables threatened to spring from her lips. She was finding it very difficult to convince herself that "Dudders" wouldn't be better served in a state orphanage than being raised by Horse Face. Lucius took one look at his wife's blazing eyes and knew something was wrong. Then he took a peek at the lethargic child in her arms. Draco was only a week older, but Harry was so malnourished it looked like the gap was at least three months.

"Get me out of this horrid place before I burn it to the ground," Narcissa hissed as she climbed into the back of the car. Draco scrambled into the seat beside her and tried to get a good look at Harry.

"What wrong?" he asked. "He sick?"

"Very sick, Draco," his mother answered. "He's very hungry. I don't think they fed him very well."

The little boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a fuzzy all day sucker.

"Gotta sweet," he offered.

"Thank you, Poppet, but sweets wouldn't be very good for him right now." She glanced at the front seat. "St. Mungo's," she told the driver.

"Will he be all right, you suppose?" Lucius asked.

"He'd better," Narcissa snarled. "I'm highly tempted to turn Kreacher loose on that horrible horse of a woman. He learned a few tricks from Bella that would be very poetic justice. She didn't so much as ask for proof that I had no intentions of drowning the boy in the first drainage ditch we pass."

"Muggles," Lucius said derisively under his breath. He hated to admit it, but the little guy was kind of cute, and utterly helpless. It was much more difficult to detest someone after they wrapped their tiny hand around his index finger and held on tight.

Draco, sitting beside his mother, patted the Potter boy on the back like Narcissa did for him when he felt bad. It looked as though the discussion was over and there would be a new permanent resident at the Manor.

As they pulled away from Number Four, there was a horrible scream from inside. Lucius turned a suspicious eye on his grinning wife.

"What?" she asked. "She already had the face. I just gave her the tail to match."

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Heaven help any fool Death Eater who tried to harm little Harry now.

Now the true test began.

Fooling one careless Muggle woman was nothing compared to pulling off a delicate deception that would have to last for years and get past skilled liars who already took it as fact that half of what they could see wasn't as it appeared. And worse than that, they had to find a way to get around medical professionals who were used to seeing the worst and reporting it to officials.

The nurse who showed Lucius and Narcissa to a room at St. Mungo's had hardly taken her eyes off the child in Narcissa's arms long enough to find the door they were supposed to use. And to her credit, Lucius' wife was unflappable under the scrutiny. She was the very image of motherly indignation as Lucius carried a very worried Draco.

"I wasn't aware there was more than one Malfoy child," she said, acridly.

"There won't be until we can get the proper papers signed," Narcissa snarled, then bounced the baby in her arms a bit as her anger made him fuss.

"If he's not yours..."

"He's the bastard son of my bastard of a cousin," she bit out, then made a show of realizing her child was in the room, "whose no good shrew of a woman decided the luster of being a Black's mistress wore off when he was sent to Azkaban. She abandoned him in the middle of the night." The best lies were sort of true... "The boy's half starved and was so filthy when I arrived to claim him, I don't think he'd been bathed since ..." she let the sentence drop off.

"Do you know his birthdate?" the nurse asked, now both placated and worried.

"The same as my son's," she lied.

"July seventeen," Draco supplied, proudly.

"These children are the same age? But he's so small!"

"Yes, and as neither of his parents were afflicted with small stature, you can see why we're concerned," Lucius offered. "And the boy has some ... sores... on his skin from mistreatment as well. I know you'll need to report this, but if we could be at least a bit discrete, it would be appreciated. My wife's had a hard few weeks and I'm afraid this might be more than her constitution can handle if the boy were to be dragged through all manner of official hindrance."

So far, no one had gotten a look at the boy's face, and they'd certainly not seen his scar, but Narcissa realized with a sudden shock that it wouldn't be long before someone would notice. They wouldn't be able to keep up the ruse.

"I'll send a Healer down immediately Mr. Malfoy," the nurse said. "And for now, initials will do for names on the forms. What is the boy's name?"

"Henry Black," Narcissa said without a pause. "I don't care what that cow put on his birth certificate. He's not taking her worthless name!"

Taking that as her cue to leave an awkward situation, the nurse slipped out. Narcissa took Harry off her shoulder and laid him on the examination couch.

"We have to glamour the scar," she said quickly, and touched her wand to his forehead.

"Cissy, no!" Lucius said too late. "They'll know you've done something. These rooms alert the doctors to such magic."

It was common for abusive parents to try and glamour their children's bruises.

"I'm not a fool, Lucius," Narcissa snapped. "Draco, come here."

His father set him down and the little boy scampered over.

"What do you think about Harry's hair?" she asked, then turned it dark brown, instead of black. "Brown or black?"

"No," he shook his head. "Icky!"

"Well, we don't want him bald..."

"No, like me," Draco said, and pulled at his own hair.

"You think he should be blond?"

Draco nodded enthusiastically. This time Harry opened his eyes a bit when Narcissa touched the wand to his head, but didn't seem to be bothered in the least as his hair zoomed from one end of the spectrum to the other while Draco decided on the perfect shade.

Lucius smiled; Narcissa knew exactly what she was doing. The alarms were going crazy, signaling multiple changes to the child's appearance, and when the frantic Healer burst through the door to try and catch an abuser in the act of concealing his crimes, he was pleasantly surprised to find Mrs. Malfoy simply toying with the boy's hair color and length.

"A longer fringe, I think," she said, and Harry's hair grew almost to his eyes.

"Like mine, Mummy!" Draco insisted. Harry's hair was still too dark for his taste, so Narcissa obliged, making him a platinum blond.

Draco giggled and clapped. He looked up at the wizened old Healer and smiled.

"He's gonna be my bro'ter," he beamed.

"So it would seem," the Healer breathed out a relieved sigh, "But you and your Mummy gave us quite the fright with your exacting standards."

"That's my fault, Healer," Narcissa said. "I'm sorry. I should have thought about the alarms, but Draco was getting so worried about little Henry, I wanted to distract him."

"It's quite all right, Mrs. Malfoy," the Healer said. "We get so few happy surprises in here, I'm certainly not going to scold a child for trying to make his new brother look like part of the family. And it certainly looks like young Draco had good reason to worry."

He unwrapped Harry carefully, hissing at the sight of the toddler's abused skin and the painful blisters on his little backside.

"You say his own family did this?"

Prodding the child's stomach, he could count and see his ribs, but mercifully, nothing was broken. Beyond the obvious signs of willful neglect, it appeared as though the child had several small bruises on his arms and legs as though he'd been repeated pinched with excessive force. Likely a Muggle healer wouldn't have been able to prevent permanent skin damage, even if he'd been able to treat him at all.

"That... woman..." Narcissa seethed. "... had relegated the boy to a boot cupboard. I don't know how long he'd been in there, but he was sitting in his own filth when I took possession of him. The poor thing couldn't even open his eyes all the way."

Perfectly orchestrated tears, most of which were real, fell on Narcissa's pale cheeks and Lucius put a well-timed supportive hand on her shoulder. Draco patted her knee and looked very concerned.

"Don't you worry," the Healer said with an encouraging smile. "We'll have Henry fixed up good as new in no time and before you know it, he'll be tearing around the house endangering family heirlooms with his brother."

He winked at Draco, who beamed and tossed out. "I'm kinda older."

"Well good," the doctor said. "Then as his big brother, you'll have to make sure nothing hurts Henry here."

Draco glanced at the still sleeping baby and his face got very hard and very serious.

"Nuffin' hurts 'im," he said, standing very tall, even though he was feeling about as tired as he could remember being. It was exciting getting a brother, but he really wanted a nap.

Lucius picked him up and Draco's head dropped to his father's shoulder.

"Nuffin' hurts 'em," he mumbled again, and Lucius couldn't help but hear an echo of the same words - if better enunciated - in his own voice.

"I'm going to assume that keeping the boy at home would be preferable to a public facility such as this one?" the Healer asked.

"You assume correctly," Lucius said, coolly.

"In that case, I'll have a list of potions for you give the boy and someone will be checking him by Floo every twelve hours for the next two days. Unless there is an emergency, in which case, you are to return him here immediately."

"Of course, Healer," Narcissa said.

"And, if you don't mind, we would like a copy of the boy's records in case there's any resistance to a guardianship claim," Lucius added. He didn't expect the horrible Muggles to make a sound, but knew Dumbledore well enough to know the old man wouldn't let Harry go without a fight if he found out where he was.

"I already had the nurse ready a parchment. She's having it authenticated by seal as we speak," the Healer said. "Just be thankful the boy's young enough that these memories should fade in time."

"Let us hope so," Lucius said as Narcissa scooped Harry up and they headed back home.

The doctor watched as they walked down the hall, and shook his head. And to think, no fewer than three patients and as many staff members had told him they were certain Malfoy was a Death Eater who got out under the radar. It was laughable - no servant of You Know Who would be so devoted to his family, even the strays his wife picked up along the way.

Henry Black was a very lucky little boy.

* * *

When the Malfoys (plus one) arrived back at their home in the early hours of the morning, Draco was sound asleep, Harry had yet to wake, and Narcissa was still fuming.

"Dobby!" Lucius bellowed as they entered the house.

A tiny bat eared creature popped in out of nowhere and waited to find out why he'd been summoned. Huge tennis ball eyes blinked at the sight of both his master and mistress carrying sleeping blond bundles.

"Dobby, it looks as though we are adding a second young man to the household," Lucius said and Dobby's ears wiggled with excitement. "The boy's been ill and is very fragile, so he'll need extra looking after."

"Yes, Master Malfoy, sir, Dobby is watching him well, sir."

"Find someone to set up a second nursery in the room across the hall from Draco's and send someone to the attic to dig out the clothes my son wore three or four months ago... you haven't given them away yet, have you?"

"Somes, Master Malfoy, sir, but there are many boxes left."

"Good. Henry, the boy, is small for his age, and until he catches up with his weight, he'll have to wear the smaller things."

The house elf nodded quickly.

"I doubt Cissy will put him down at all until tomorrow, so don't worry about the room needing to be ready tonight. Just get it done."

"Yes, Master Malfoy, sir," Dobby said, and popped out again to find the rest of the elves.

Lucius and Narcissa carried the boys upstairs, but as soon as Lucius tried to put Draco down, he held on tight.

"Let go, son," he said. "It's past time for bed."

"Wanna stay wifs 'im," Draco protested, and Lucius was too tired to argue after another attempt proved fruitless. He carried the boy to his own room where Narcissa had settled Harry into bed beside her and was humming some kind of tune as she stroked a hand through his hair. Lucius laid Draco beside him and sat down on his side of the bed.

Anyone who didn't know better would have sworn the boys were brothers by blood, one a bit scrawny perhaps, but the Healer's potions should fix that soon enough. Narcissa had duplicated Draco's coloring down to the last inch of skin, completely obliterating every ugly purple or green bruise.

Lucius barely managed to toe his shoes off, he was so tired, and he fell asleep in an over-full bed, trying to remember what color eyes James and Lily had. If they were blue, it would be perfect...

* * *

_**Well, that's all for now folks. Even though it isn't mine, I would still love to hear your thoughts. Is there anything you would have me change, etc.? I'm always open to new suggestions!**_

_**-Laerwen**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A.N.:**__** Well, here is the next installment! Again, not mine, but I have made minor edits to correct grammar and spelling. I hope you all enjoy! Also, thank you to all who have read, reviewed, favorited, and followed both this story and myself. I would love to hear feedback from you all! Until next Sunday! **_

_**-Laerwen**_

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Chapter: 2

* * *

A few months after Harry Potter became an honorary Malfoy, Henry Black was a much healthier child.

The nightmares stopped after the first month, but until then Harry would wake up screaming for "Mummy" and shrieking about the "bad man" who was "gonna get me", but after a few minutes of Narcissa's cooing and petting, he'd be back asleep - usually in the Malfoy's bed, and usually with Draco right beside him, daring the bad man to try and hurt his brother.

He was now the same size as Draco, and every bit as rambunctious when it came to personality. Draco'd had more than a year as the sole focus of his parents' attention, and despite how quick he was to defend "Henry" against other children (Blaise Zabini's hair would eventually grow back...), he was also quick to stake his territory.

Harry, while similarly willing to watch Draco's back, (It's not like Millicent Bulstrode's nose looked worse before he hit her with the toy hippogriff...) had just enough emotional scarring from his time with the Dursleys to guard his own space and things like a dragon on its nest.

That first year was turbulent, to say the least, but at least when word finally circulated about the Malfoy's long term house guest, the story put the family in a good light. (Oh, how wonderful... taking in a poor baby like that!)

Rumors flew about who the child's mother could be, and more than a few well known social climbers tried to claim him. Each one was unceremoniously contacted by the Malfoys' attorney and informed that claiming the child would result, not in his custody and the Black family inheritance, but a report to the Aurors complete with the certified hospital records from St. Mungo's to detail the abuse his "mother" had reportedly inflicted upon him.

That effectively silenced the clamor, and the strategically salted details of the boy's pre-Malfoy home life gave the family an excuse to stay out of sight long enough for people to lose immediate interest. Occasionally, someone would call or owl to inquire about formal adoption, but knowing that would lead to familial testing to determine bloodlines (Lucius actually grumbled about being a Pureblood for once...), Narcissa simply stated that once her cousin was cleared of the false charges against him (like there was a chance of that - HA!), he was welcome to have his son back.

Their other motive for not legally changing Harry's name was that to do so would be to draw the wrath of Dumbledore, and no matter the bumbling facade he put on, neither Malfoy was foolish enough to believe he was harmless. Both official and unofficial reports had surfaced saying Harry Potter was now officially missing and the Muggles to which he was entrusted had no idea where he'd gone - or that they'd ever seen him.

Petunia Dursley was also rumored to have a tail, but that was probably just gossip.

By the time both boys were two years old, they'd had their share of posturing and tantrums and had flung enough porridge across the breakfast table that the house elves turned it into a game to see which one could catch the most of "his" boy's meal in a bowl on his head.

Harry was still a blond, despite his early whimpers about looking like Duddy Pig... whatever that was... but his huge green eyes stayed unchanged. Narcissa insisted - it was the only way she could really tell them apart when he and Draco got it in their heads to "fool Mummy".

Both were excellent mimics by the age of three, and far more shrewd than a pair of toddlers had any right to be. And the morning of their (now shared) fifth birthday, they orchestrated a nursery break and liberated their birthday cake.

Narcissa arrived in the main hall just as the little monsters were being chased up the stairs by house elves, Dobby and Tripp, each wielding a wooden spoon and the threat of forced bath to remove blue and green frosting from pretty much their entire bodies... they thought it made great paint.

The house routinely looked like small scale nuclear war had broken out whenever the boys left one room for another, and frankly, she'd be relieved when they opened their birthday presents, got their training brooms, and found an excuse to play outside. But she'd also be the first to admit she loved the chaos.

Lucius would be the last to admit it, but the truth was, he did, too. His own upbringing had been stuffy and starched, and while he still expected both Draco and Harry to display impeccable manners in front of guests, he took a perverse sort of joy in watching them "improve" the portraits of his ancestors that lined the hallways. His father had been livid, and threatened (as much as a portrait can) to disinherit him if Lucius didn't immediately have his hair restored to its proper grey (Red! Honestly! I look like a Weasley!) and the garish bow tie removed. Lucius had in turn threatened to have him dipped in turpentine if he ever raised his voice to one of his grandsons again - and yes, he was to treat Harry like a grandson, like it or not.

Abraxas harrumphed, then left his frame and took up residence behind the closed doors of a barn in a lovely pastoral scene on the second floor.

So Lucius wasn't at all shocked or angry when he arrived home after a business trip to see the mess at his feet.

"They found the cake, again, I see," Lucius said with a mock scowl as the kitchen elves, Ruby and Button, scrubbed the remains of the mess from the floor, and walls, and- "How did they get it on the ceiling?"

"I believe their exact words were 'I bet you can't...' followed by both of them trying to win the bet," Narcissa sighed. "This is why I told you we needed the decoy cake."

The real one was safe and sound in box marked "squid liver" behind the potatoes in the kitchen.

"I bow to your woman's intuition," Lucius said with a graceful sweep of his arm.

"Woman's intuition is nothing compared to those two hurricanes in a bottle," she said. "You know, I think this is why the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor is encouraged. When you get them to work together, they're unstoppable."

"You think Harry will be in Gryffindor?"

"Both his parents were," Narcissa said. "And I think McGonagall might sew the Sorting Hat's mouth shut if it even thought of placing a Potter in Slytherin. She's been made the House Head, you know."

"I did... how did you?" Lucius asked. His wife had never been particularly interested in the continued politics of the school, even though he had a place on the board.

"Our guest told me about it over tea."

"Guest?" Lucius said suspiciously. "Did one of their friends arrive early?"

They'd been very careful about who they let into their house since Harry arrived, and watched the boys like hawks even when the only guest around was another child. The children they knew all came with Death Eater parents, and that meant danger for the boy they both considered a son by proxy.

"No. This one's a confirmed bachelor with no children..."

"Severus," Lucius sighed. "What's he doing here?"

"The boys are five," Narcissa said. "They start their formal education this year, which means Hogwarts starts keeping track of them, their marks, and their medical records. Dumbledore's insisting they inventory the entire class. The entire class - even those among Muggles."

This was not a happy revelation.

"With self-addressing envelopes to find the students no matter where they're at, I suppose," Lucius drawled. "Just like the Hogwarts' letters?"

"I know," she said, off her husband's look. "I thought we'd have more time, too."

"More time for what?" a raspy hiss of a voice asked from shadows she would have sworn weren't there a second earlier.

Lucius looked up, scowling, and Narcissa looked shockingly guilty for someone used to hiding her true face, and was that... fear... he saw?

"Your tea's gone cold," Snape said, depositing the cup next the Narcissa on the table. "You didn't come back, and then there was the sound of a crash and something I could only describe as a rampage of rabid thestrals, and then I was certain I heard Lucius' dulcet tones..."

"Always the dramatist, Severus," Lucius practically growled. "How long have you been eavesdropping?"

"Long enough." The edges of his mouth tugged into a less than pleasant grin.

"And just what it is you think you heard?" Lucius' voice, much like Snape's, didn't get louder when he was at his most dangerous, it got softer and more controlled... unlike the aforementioned rampaging rabid thestrals who were now stampeding back down the stairs, high on sugar and still being chased by house elves.

"Stop it Tripp! I'm clean!" Draco insisted. He'd collected a toy sword from his playroom and he and the elf were in a duel - spoon against toy.

"Get off my head Dobby!" Harry shrieked, wishing he'd thought to grab a weapon to defend himself as the elf attacked his ears with a flannel to get out the last traces of frosting while perched on Harry's back. When the verbal commands did nothing to dislodge the cleaning frenzy, Harry changed tactics and started to spin in a tight, fast circle, hoping to make the elf dizzy. Unfortunately, it was a fate he inflicted on himself.

He stumbled sideways, knocking into Draco, who up to then had been winning the duel. They landed side by side on their backs, and at their father's feet.

"Hello, father," they said in unison.

"Hello," he said, not quite able to keep the earlier tension out of his voice. Both boys thought the look was for them and immediately jumped to their feet upon realizing there was another man in the room; they thought they were in trouble.

"Sorry, father," came another twin declaration. "Hello, sir."

Snape fixed both boys with an icy stare. Draco, whom he hadn't seen since he was an infant, when Lucius named him the boy's godfather, looked just as he expected him to. The supposed Black brat was a shock, and not just because he seemed to be a clone of Draco down to the last shoe button. It was the one difference in the boys that hit him hardest - a pair of very green and unmistakable eyes.

"Boys, this is a very old friend of mine." Lucius stepped between Snape and his children, blocking them from view. "He's stopped by for a visit - why don't you and the elves take your games outside for a while?'

"Yes father," they said.

The polite contrition was followed closely by Draco's shout of "Dobby's a troll!" as he brandished his toy sword overhead, to which Harry added: "Squash the troll!" He grabbed Tripp's discarded spoon and the two thundered out of the house after the elf, who was now running for his life.

"My, my my... what have the two of you been up to?" Severus snarled. "You have exactly five seconds to tell me who that boy is - who he really is - and how you came to have him, or I swear I'll call the Aurors myself."

"I wouldn't think you'd be in such a hurry to see Moody again," Lucius attempted a threat.

"I'm not," Snape hissed. "Which is why he'll believe it's worth his time to Floo over."

"You know who he is, Severus," Narcissa said. "He's Sirius'-"

"Don't!" Snape snapped. "Don't presume to manipulate me like that insane Skeeter woman and her acid quill. That boy had Lily Evans' eyes - a fact I would affirm with my dying breath. I see three possibilities as to how such a thing occurred. One - the blond hair is natural, in which case, given his age, Lucius here was unfaithful to you within moments of Draco's conception. Two - that mongrel of a cousin of yours betrayed his best friend with his wife. Given his latter acts, that's not all that unbelievable on his part, but either of those options would make Lily Evans a whore, and that is in no way possible. So I'm left with the third option - that boy, to whom you have assigned the name Black, is, in fact, the son of James Potter. Making him Harry Potter. Making him the child for which the entire Magical Community has been searching for FOUR YEARS!"

The same boy Snape was dreadfully certain he'd failed and allowed to be destroyed.

"We're the only family he has, Severus," Narcissa said, weakly.

"He was with family! Lily's family!"

"The Muggles," Lucius scoffed and turned away. Snape wasn't exactly a hulking giant, but he could be intimidating enough when he wanted to be - even to someone who had once been his mentor... which gave him an idea...

"This isn't some game you can play because you don't like the factory the pieces came from, Lucius! You had no right to-"

"Keep a child from being abused?" Lucius supplied the end of the sentence. "Being starved? Ignored? Hurt for no reason with no way out?"

"What are you talking about," Snape hissed. "If this is some attempt to sway me by mention my father, Lucius, I warn you you're on thin and breaking ice. I'll skip the Aurors and go straight to Dumbledore, by the time he's done, there won't be enough left of either of you to fill one cell in Azkaban, much less two."

"Dumbledore left him on the stoop, did you know that?" Narcissa asked. She placed a practiced hand on Snape's shoulder and he jerked away at the contact. "At night. In a basket. He left him, Severus, all alone where anyone or anything could have snatched him up and taken him."

"He didn't leave him unprotected. Even Dumbledore's not that careless."

"I couldn't go near the house," Lucius said, "and I'd imagine neither could you..." Snape grabbed his arm reflexively "... however Narcissa had no trouble at all strolling up the front walk. And less trouble than that convincing the Muggle woman to hand over the child."

"If you think you can sway me with tales of Imperiusing helpless Muggles..."

"Imperius wasn't on the list of Unforgivables I wanted to hurl at that harpy," Narcissa lost control of her temper for a moment. "She came very close to explaining her actions to her sister in person."

"What actions?" Snape asked, carefully.

"I know you were familiar with Lily Evans as a child," Lucius said, searching for cues on how to proceed in Snape's unreadable face. "Did you know Petunia, too?"

"Should've named her Poison Ivy. Hemlock. Sumac..." Narcissa grumbled.

"Not an unfair assessment of her personality traits," Snape said. "But she wouldn't harm her sister's child. She and Lily had their troubles, but Petunia was never cruel. Jealous maybe..."

"How about vindictive?" Lucius asked.

"Not enough to take it out on an innocent," Snape said.

Narcissa whirled around and stormed out of the room. Snape craned his neck to see if she was heading out to the yard, perhaps to Apparate with the boys before he could turn them in, but she only went to Lucius' office and opened an invisible safe. When she returned, she was carrying a sealed parchment, certified by St. Mungo's hospital.

"Our first stop after taking possession of Petunia Dursley's "beloved" nephew," she spat and shoved the parchment into his hands.

Snape fought the bile in his throat as he unrolled the parchment and read the inscription: "Let it henceforth be known that the staff of St. Mungo's attests to the following..." what followed was a detailed list of the then baby's first year of life. Everything from birth to his first birthday went perfectly within normal limits, save the allergic reaction to powdered dragon eggs in his breakfast one morning. There was a marked adrenaline spike the night his parents died, coupled with a generically recorded "healed scar" no one had realized the significance of since it wasn't visible. Then, immediately after, came a downward spiral that started with mild exposure and frostbite coupled with emotional distress, tiny contusions dotted his skin like large purple freckles, he went without sleep or proper food, had a lung infection from dust inhalation, suffered multiple insect bites, vitamin deficiency and overall poor health.

Petunia'd left Lily's child to rot.

Snape clenched the parchment so tight it shook in his hands. Of all the stories and excuses he'd expected to hear - most of which centered on the Malfoy's using the boy as leverage... the boy he'd been worried sick over since he'd promised to keep him safe himself - none of them included one stupid Muggle family and their ineptitude toward childcare.

"I won't lie to you, Severus," Lucius said. The other man had gone glassy eyed and pale; Lucius struggled to retrieve the parchment without ripping it. "My initial motives were hardly philanthropic. At best you could credit me with wanting to pull Cissy out of her fog, but now... you'll take my son over my dead body."

Snape didn't answer; he was still shaking. In his mind, he'd raced through a dozen very satisfying near death experiences all starring Lily's sister and her worthless family. Just as he was trying to decide how best to coax Peeves into moving to Surrey for a change of scenery, Narcissa put her hand on him again.

"He's happy here, Severus," she said, then pointed out the window to where Harry and Draco had cornered Dobby in an elementary sort of pincer maneuver. The elf popped out of reach at the last second and the boys bounced off each other, laughing as they fell to the ground. "Rescue never came for you... it did for him. Don't take it away from him."

Snape had always thought that when it came down to it, the Malfoy matriarch was far more dangerous than her husband, and that instant proved him right. Despite every plan that had formed the moment he saw Lily's eyes in that boy's face, another barrier between Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter had just been erected.

The Boy Who Lived was now under the protection of a growing cadre of Death Eaters. If he hadn't already banished the Dark Lord to the ether of unlife, Voldemort would have died from a heart attack on the spot.

"We know we can't keep him a secret forever," Narcissa said, "but if we can at least keep it quiet until he goes away to school, he's got a chance of learning what he needs to survive."

"We may spoil him a little."

Snape's eyebrow hit his hairline as he glanced from Mt. St. Birthday Gifts in the dining room and then back to Lucius.

"Okay, we may spoil him a lot, but you can't deny that I'm in a better position to show that boy how to survive than a bunch of uniformed, backward thinking Muggles."

"It sounds like he's already survived quite a bit," Severus said.

"You're not suggesting that's a good thing," Narcissa gasped. Her hand fell dangerously close to her wand in her pocket. "Childhood shouldn't be survived. It should be a strong foundation on which the rest of his life is built! Take him back to those people and you'll have to put him back together before he can even begin to move forward."

"Claws in, Cissy," Lucius said. "I don't think that's what Severus meant at all... is it?"

"Not in the least," Severus said. "But I think it might be what our dear Headmaster had in mind. If the boy was treated poorly - enough to break his spirit, if not his body - he'd likely cling to the first kind voice he ever encountered."

Narcissa nodded, thinking how he'd stuck to her like glue for months.

"He'd be exceedingly... malleable," Snape hissed.

"Severus, you've been stirring that tea for fifteen minutes. Unless you're trying to separate the liquid by centrifuge, I think it's cool enough to drink," Narcissa said.

"If I didn't owe him my life, I'd kill the old fool myself," he snarled, and set the tea aside.

"Why not meet us halfway and just frustrate him for the next six years?" Lucius suggested.

"How?"

"It's obvious that this upcoming census is another attempt to find Harry. Owling families at five years of age is ridiculous, most Muggle-borns are almost twice that before any notable magicality surfaces."

"I wasn't aware you were so ... informed, Lucius," Snape said, almost amused.

"Being uninformed is never a good idea," Lucius countered.

"Do you know when the notices will be sent?" Narcissa asked. "Lucius didn't, so he's obviously keeping this from even the Governors."

"The thirty-first," Snape said. "Harry's fifth birthday."

Well, that was a rather obvious date to choose...

"He says that way they'll be sure to get all of the children that make the August cut-off date for enrollment."

"I'm sure," Lucius drawled.

* * *

The three of them spent the final hours before the boys' party making plans, and by the time Snape had left (after delivering his elementary potions sets, which was his gift and reason for coming in the first place) and cake ( a red and green Quidditch pitch) was on the table, things were set.

Lucius would take the boys on a trip the week of the 31st. He wasn't sure what a theme park was, but he'd heard from some of the other families that Muggle children loved them, especially something called roller coasters.

The owl would arrive at a rented house and it would depart from the same. A Muggle house, not on the Floo network, and in a crowded enough area to prevent Apparating. Narcissa would take Draco home as soon as he was asleep the night before, so his notice would come to the Manor. By the time Dumbledore could get anyone close enough to investigate, Lucius and Harry would be back at the Manor. The boys would love it. Dressing up in Muggle clothes was one of their favorite pastimes.

"Mum," Harry said as they got ready for bed that night (he and Draco both refused to take off the Quidditch robes they'd gotten, and their brooms had to be forcibly removed from their fingers. Even if they could only fly six inches off the ground... it was still flying!)

"Yes?"

"Why are my robes red?" he asked. "Draco's are green."

A half asleep cheer for Slytherin came from Draco's room across the hall.

"Draco's father was a Slytherin," Narcissa explained carefully. "We thought maybe you'd like something to remind you of your own father; he was a Gryffindor."

"But everyone says Sirius (he refused to call him "Father") is a criminal. I don't want to be a criminal!"

"And you aren't," she assured him. "You aren't your parents, Harry."

"But what if I want to be like you and Father?" Harry asked. "What if I want to be a snake?"

"You'll be who you're meant to be," Narcissa said. "Be it a lion or a snake or even a raven... don't even think about coming home with yellow robes or I'll have Dobby feed them to the nifflers."

She grinned, teasing him, and he smiled as he drifted off to sleep. Lucius was watching from the door; Narcissa stood from his bed side and left the room.

"We're going to have to tell him the truth," she said.

"I know," he said.

They turned off the light and went to their room, but neither found it easy to sleep.

* * *

_**Well, I hope you enjoyed that. See you again next week!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A.N.:**__** I am so sorry it took a bit longer than expected to update, but I had a very busy finals week at college and then move out day took forever. Anyway, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it! I know I certainly did. ;) As always, let me know what you think (even though I don't own this part)!**_

_**-Laerwen**_

* * *

Chapter: 3

Since no one raided their Manor in the middle of the night, the Malfoys assumed their ruse had worked. Dumbledore was most likely combing the tourist town where Lucius and the boys had spent a (surprisingly) enjoyable holiday and finding nothing and no one that looked anything like the scarred dark haired boy Harry Potter was supposed to be.

They returned home and the boys proceeded to regale their mother with tales of pictures that couldn't move and strange machines that ran on wheels and raced around looping tracks. Lucius assured her that he Stuck them both to the seats for good measure so they couldn't possibly fall out, and Narcissa assured him that was the only reason he was still alive to request the house elves learn how to make hot dogs, pizza, and something called popping corn... she didn't like the sound of that one at all and stared at every served meal as though it might suddenly explode in her face. (Draco and Harry laughed, and explained it later.)

Then, after the thrill of Muggle amusement wore off, Lucius called them all into the study and locked and Silenced the door, saying he had something very important to tell them. The boys were a little scared; their father only silenced the door when he wanted to scold them, and they couldn't remember being bad. Mum was there, too, but she didn't look angry; she looked sad.

And Father was pacing... that was always a bad thing.

"We're sorry," they said as soon as the room was Silenced. They'd pretty well perfected the twin speak by now.

"For what?" Lucius asked, confused.

"For whatever..."

"...we did."

"We don't remember..."

"... doing anything wrong."

"But we're..."

"...sorry Father."

"Ask Dobby..."

"... he was..."

"...with us all day," they finished together.

Lucius almost grinned. If they had gone so quickly to using the house elf as an alibi, the little monsters most likely HAD done something worth punishment. Dobby was hardly a deterrent to mischief, and more often an accomplice. His hand strayed to the silver topped cane he often carried, and two already pale faces turned stark white as months full of confessions erupted out of their mouths, only interrupted by breathing and apologies.

He was startled at first, then confused as to why they were suddenly so terrified, when Narcissa cleared her throat and nodded to his hand. He let go of the cane immediately, sickened that either of them would think he'd use it as a punishment... no, he'd had enough of that from his own father.

Lucius rounded his desk and leaned against the front of it, as two very guilty (and now red) faced little boys hiccupped their sobs away.

"You're not here because you're in trouble," he said finally, though at some point, a few of their bigger confessions would have to be addressed... such as the real reason Tripp's hair had been singed off... "You're here because Mum and I are."

A set of blue eyes and a set of green ones got very big.

"You did something bad, Father?" Harry asked.

"Are we supposed to punish you?" Draco asked.

Narcissa snorted a laugh. There was a certain malicious gleam in Draco's eyes when he asked that. A very... Malfoy... trait.

"You know how we tell you boys to always tell us the truth?" Lucius asked; they nodded. "Well, Mummy and I haven't told you the truth about something."

"Something bad?"

"Something big," Lucius corrected. "And we need to tell you now before you're any older and the damage is beyond repair."

"What is it?"

"It's about Harry, I'm afraid," he said, and the boy in question bit his lip. He suddenly wished he was much smaller or able to turn invisible. Draco was staring at him, like he was trying to guess what was wrong.

"He's really a girl, isn't he?" Draco laughed. "That's okay, Father, I've already told him that." He stuck his tongue out at Harry.

A bout of sneezing earlier in the day had left Harry in something of a predicament. Every time he sneezed, his appearance changed, and unfortunately, Draco'd figured out fairly quickly that he could influence his brother's appearance by shouting something as he sneezed. By the time the fit ended, Harry had a bow in his hair and was wearing girl's school robes. And he wasn't at all grateful that Draco had refrained from yelling "in pink!"

"I am not!" Harry screeched, and five minutes was lost to the boys tearing around the room, trying to scramble under furniture while simultaneously attempting to bloody their brother's nose.

Narcissa caught Draco under a chair and picked him up by the seat of his pants; Lucius had Harry by the collar, and they were both still swinging.

"Maybe we should have done this one at a time," he said, frustrated.

"No. It was a mistake all together," Narcissa said, dismissively. "Obviously, our boys are too young for an important secret. They want to roll around on the floor and topple the chairs like babies, so we'll just have to dig out the crib and nappies... I'll have Ruby find some old bottles for their dinner..."

"NO!" both boys shouted and stopped flailing.

"We'll be good!"

"We're not babies!'

"I won't wear a nappy!"

"I won't use a bottle!"

They were plunked back into their chairs, where both crossed their arms and refused to look at the other.

"Boys..." Lucius warned, and they at least consented to look at him. "Maybe you should try, Cissy," he said to his wife.

Narcissa walked forward clutching a thin book to her chest. She stood beside Lucius and held it out so the boys could see it. There was a crest on the front with a large H in the middle and images of animals behind it: lion, snake, raven, and badger.

"A Hogwarts book?" Draco asked; his parents nodded.

"This is a classbook," Narcissa explained. "It shows the pictures of people who were all in school at the same time." She opened a page and the images started blinking, unaccustomed to the bright lights after being closed so long.

She thumbed through the pages quickly, until she came to a section where there were group photos.

"This," she pointed to the left page," is the Slytherin photo where you'll find your father and me."

The images stood up straight and waved back when the boys located their parents.

"And this," she continued on the facing page, "is the Gryffindor photo where you'll find your birth parents, Harry."

The Slytherins and Gryffindors made faces (and gestures) at each other across the book's spine. It looked like someone had managed to smuggle a wand into the photo shoot and tiny, bright lines shot from the Gryffindor side to sting a very pale and sullen boy with stringy hair on the Slytherin side. The sullen boy produced his own wand and had it raised when photo-Lucius grabbed his hand and nodded toward their audience, clearly a "not with witnesses" kind of warning.

Harry traced his finger along the Gryffindor faces (smushing several) and following the list of names until he stopped at the one with the wand.

"That's my father?" he asked, clearly unimpressed.

"That's my cousin, Sirius," Narcissa agreed.

Photo Sirius went slack jawed at this information.

"Oi! What're you doin' with my kid, Cissy?" he screeched, then added quieter. "Who's his Mum?"

The Gryffindors got very huffy once word spread through the photo that the Marauder's son was with a Slytherin family; the Slytherins looked very pleased on their page.

"I don't want to be your kid!" Harry screamed at the photo and Sirius looked shocked, crestfallen, and then furious.

"You Imperiused my kid! I'm gonna-"

But what, exactly, the photo had in mind for revenge was muffled by the book closing.

"I hate him!" Harry pouted, trying very hard not to cry. "He was horrible even in school!"

"His friends didn't think so," Narcissa said gently. "Of course, we didn't get along very well."

"But that's not what we wanted to tell you," Lucius said, steering the conversation back on track. "It wasn't even the person we wanted to show you... do you boys know the difference between father and godfather?"

Draco and Harry shook their heads.

"Do you remember my friend Severus who came for your birthday?"

They wrinkled their noses at the memory of the scary man who'd given them boxes of smelly potions bottles for their birthday.

"Severus is Draco's godfather," Lucius said. "What that means is that Mummy and I asked him, as a friend, to take care of Draco if anything happened to us."

"He only wanted Draco?" Harry asked, sadly.

Draco leaned over, forgetting they were angry with each other, and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll have Tripp poison him if I have to live with him."

This made Harry feel slightly better.

"No, he didn't just want Draco," Lucius snickered. "But we asked him before Harry came to live with us."

"I was still with my fa- I mean the man in the picture?"

"No," Lucius said. "That's what we want you to understand. Sirius was your father's best friend, and the one he asked to take care of you."

"He was my godfather?"

"Yes."

"Did he give me stupid presents, too?"

"If you count the baby bumblelion."

"What's that?"

"A bad idea for cross breeding," Narcissa grumbled. Harry was confused, but he tried to pay attention.

"So who's my real Mum and Dad?"

"I'm going to tap you with my wand before I answer that, okay? I want you to see something," Narcissa said and Harry nodded. She touched his hair with her wand, and all the glamours she'd put on him dissolved. When he looked at his brother, Draco was staring with his mouth open the way Father told them not to stare.

"What's wrong?"

"You're all... ugly!" Draco shouted, then he started to cry. "Fix him Mummy!"

"He's not ugly, Draco," she scolded and magicked a mirror so Harry could see himself. "This is how he looked when we got him." (Minus the filth, of course.)

Harry looked into the mirror and saw his own face, but with wild black hair. He scowled because it wouldn't lie flat, even with spit.

"Your father's hair was the same way," Lucius grumbled. "We always thought he did it on purpose."

"Will you show me my real Mum and Dad?" Harry asked.

Narcissa opened the class book again. The entire Gryffindor page had turned their backs.

"James, turn around, please," Narcissa said, more kindly than she wanted. "You, too, Lily... Sirius stop sulking, or I'll blot you out!"

They turned back around, surprised at the new look of the boy they'd seen earlier.

"Oi! Why's my kid look like you, James?" Sirius asked. "Why you... I'll bust your nose for sneaking around with my wife!"

Photo-Sirius lunged, only to be held back by two other boys - one with sandy brown hair, and a short pudgy one who was rather rat-like.

"Sirius!" Narcissa snapped. "You're not his father, you're his godfather - which is what we're trying to explain to the boy! Stop trying to kill his father so Harry's not left with nightmares of James's broken face."

"Oh..." Sirius deflated. "Why didn't you just say so, Cissy? Congrats, mate," he said to James. "Who's the lucky bird?"

"That's my mum and dad?" Harry asked when she'd pointed out Lily and James who were shocked to find they had a kid. James turned to the Slytherin page, stuck out his tongue and wiggled his hands in his ears. The greasy, pale boy made it as far as the edge of his frame before photo-Lucius and two others managed to grab the back of his robes and stop him.

"They are," Narcissa said. "And they are, at the moment, acting far less mature than a pair of five-year-olds!"

"Did they not want me?" Harry asked, sadly and the photos of his parents launched into immediate denials.

"They wanted you," Narcissa said, and the photos nodded, still not sure how a Malfoy ended up with their son. "But something very bad happened, and they-"

"We died?" James blurted.

"You're not being nearly so helpful as I had hoped," Narcissa growled. "I'm trying to ease the information out, not use it like a bludgeon."

Lily slapped him on the back of the head.

"Sorry," James said sheepishly.

"As I was saying..." Narcissa said, glaring at the page. "Something very bad happened. A man came and tried to hurt you, and your Mummy and Daddy got in his way."

"Who?" Lily asked.

"You Know Who," Lucius spat, hoping they'd at least understand that much and stop interrupting.

The photos fell silent with those three little words, and the story continued.

"Your parents stopped him from hurting you, Poppet," Narcissa said, "but you needed a new place to live. Your Aunt and Uncle-"

"Not Petunia!" Lily gasped.

"-didn't know how to take care of a little boy-"

"I'll kill her!" Lily shrieked. Now she was the one the boys were trying to hold in frame.

"I'll help," came the answer from the greasy boy. At that point, he just really wanted to hurt someone and Petunia was as good a target as any.

"Honestly," Narcissa snapped. "What are you going to do, give the horse a paper cut? I already gave her a tail."

That shocked, and seemingly satisfied, the photos for now.

"And your godfather," Lucius said, trying to talk over the squabbling on the page, "was... unavailable."

Sirius didn't answer that time, but he was obviously confused.

"So I told a little lie," Narcissa said. "I told your aunt that Sirius was your father, not your godfather, so she'd think I was your relative, too, and let me have you."

"She just GAVE HIM TO YOU!"

Lily's wand exploded in her hand and half the Gryffindors hit the deck to dodge what flew out of it. The page ripped at the top.

"Now we know where the temper came from..." Lucius drawled.

"And so no one could take you away when we got you home, we just kept telling the same lie," Narcissa finished.

"I look like him," Harry said; James beamed.

"Yes you do," Lucius said. "Your Mu- I mean Cissy (he changed it from Mum so Lily wouldn't throw another fit) changed your appearance to help hide you, and because Draco thought you looked better as a blond."

"You have a scar!" Draco announced. "Wicked!"

"Lemme see!"

Narcissa handed him the mirror and he pushed his fringe up high so he could see it clearly.

"It looks like a lightning bolt," Draco said, awed.

"Did he hit me when I was a baby?" Harry scowled and gave his brother an accusing glare.

"No," Draco snapped.

"Then how'd you give me a scar?"

"I didn't!"

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

And it was back to the kicking and screaming, though this time, they found their bums glued to their chairs.

"NO FAIR!" both screamed.

Narcissa just smirked and pocketed her wand. A shiny pink pacifier appeared in each boy's mouth for good measure. Two faces scrunched up in juvenile rage, then the pacifiers were spat as far as they could managed.

"Ewww!"

"Muuuuuuuuuuuuuum!"

Both screeches echoed around the room; Lucius looked like he was getting a migraine.

"Now, if everyone - other than the five-year-olds - will act their age, maybe we can get to the point of this family meeting," he said. "We're going to tell you about your parents, Harry, but you - and this goes for you, too, Draco - can't tell anyone about this for a long time. It's a very big secret."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was not a happy man, which ironically, made Snape feel much better about the day ahead.

The old man was glancing over the lists gathered from the families of children due to start school the same year as Harry Potter, including Potter himself, and was still no closer to finding his misplaced golden boy than he'd been five years earlier.

"How is this possible?" he stammered, more than slightly shocked. "Whoever has Harry got our owl. They sent their own owl in return. The boy's doing well from what these records show, yet no one in the entire magical community has seen him once!"

'Oh yes they had,' Snape thought. 'They just didn't know it.'

"No one's tried to access his Gringotts vaults or put a claim on his trust. No one's getting the monthly allotment that would have gone to the Dursleys... I don't understand it. How's the child living?"

Snape almost laughed. If the old man knew the answer to that, he'd stroke out. If it wasn't necessary for the child to appear at Hogwarts when he was eleven, Harry could live a very pampered life with Lucius and Narcissa until he was of age, and no one would ever find him. As if the Malfoys would need to touch a Knut of the Potter money - or a Muggle allotment.

"And what of the Black child?" Minerva McGonagall asked, skimming the register. "He's the same age, why was he not sent a notice?"

Snape stopped short of slapping himself. They'd focused so heavily on keeping Harry from being discovered that they'd forgotten to deal with "Henry Black".

"No one knows who the boy's mother was," Snape hissed. "Perhaps she was a Muggle, and... well, it's no secret how poorly Black kept his own life. It's not beyond the bounds of reason that any offspring could have been affected."

"Severus, you're not suggesting a child in the Black line is a ... a ... a Squib..."

"Stranger things have happened," he said with a smile he knew they'd pass off as vindictive glee. Stranger things had indeed happened, and would continue to do so as long as Snape had a part in them.

"Perhaps we should send Poppy to examine the child," McGonagall suggested.

"Not a bad idea," Dumbledore said, off-handedly.

"It's a terrible idea," Snape said. "If the boy is a Squib, then Lucius most likely already knows. He certainly would have noticed that Draco got a notice and Henry Black did not. And if he does know, he won't want it splashed about the papers. He won't let you within sight distance of the child."

"You may be right, my boy," Dumbledore sighed. "I'd hate to expose an innocent child to that sort of scrutiny."

Snape almost choked on his tea. Not expose an innocent child to scrutiny? What did the old fool think he was doing to Lily's boy? For once in his life, Dumbledore was not going to get his way, and that made it a very good day, indeed. It would, Snape suspected, only be outdone by the Sorting Feast six years in the future when the truth, and all its repercussions, finally came out.

* * *

Young Harry was having a nightmare.

He kicked and screamed, tangled in his blankets, but he couldn't get away from the monster who was chasing him. It was going to get him. It was going to eat him. It was...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

He jerked straight up in bed, drenched with sweat, and only vaguely heard his Mummy's voice telling him it was all right. The lights came on and she sat on his bed while Harry blinked furiously. Out in the hall he could see Draco peeking from behind their father's legs in the doorway.

"It was just a bad dream," Narcissa said. She rubbed her hand in circles on Harry's back, and swished her wand over him to dry his clothes.

Eventually he calmed and lay back in bed.

"You want to tell me about it?"

"The snake man was trying to get me," Harry said. "And I saw my Mum and Dad, like in the pictures, and the snake man ate them up, and he was gonna eat me, and then there was a bad laugh and bright green light, and ...and... and then I woke up."

"Well, there are absolutely no snake men in this house," Narcissa said, trying to keep the hitch out of her voice as she looked at her husband.

"Promise?"

"I promise," she said, and kissed his forehead beneath his once again blond fringe - horrified to find that the scar had not only broken through the glamour, but was glowing red hot as though freshly made. She covered it again and Harry sighed.

"Thanks Mummy, it was really sore," he said.

"Your scar?"

"Uh-huh... it made my whole head hurt! Mummy..."

"Yes?"

"Can I have Dobby sleep in here tonight... just in case?"

"Of course, Poppet... Dobby!"

He appeared with a pop.

"Yes Mistress Malfoy? How can Dobby be helping?"

"Harry's had a bad dream, and would like to know if you'll stay in his room tonight and defend him from the snake man."

Dobby's little face turned hard and serious. He sat down on the end of Harry's bed cross-legged and scowling.

"Dobby is guarding Master Harry, sir. No snake mans is disturbing his sleeps!"

"Thank you, Dobby," Narcissa said on her way out.

"Get the spoon, Dobby," Harry said sleepily. "He'll be scared of the spoon."

Another POP and Dobby was now armed with the dreaded wooden spoon.

Narcissa waited in the hall while Lucius put Draco back to bed; when he was finished, neither of them had to say that this wasn't a good thing at all.

* * *

When Narcissa went to check on Harry the next morning, all she found in his room was Dobby scrounging for missing socks under the bed.

"Where's Harry?"

"Master Harry, sir, is hiding in Master Malfoy, sir's office," Dobby said, as he successfully located a black sock under a lamp. "He is saying the snake man won't be scared of Dobby's spoon and is wanting to speak to Master Malfoy, sir. Master Harry, sir, is saying the office is scary enough to keep the snake man out, then he is telling Dobby none of his socks match."

He spied a white sock stuffed inside a toy dragon so it hung out like a long cotton tongue.

"Thank you, Dobby," she said, and left him to his sock hunt.

Sure enough, after hearing from his wife, Lucius found the little boy curled in a ball under his desk.

"Harry?" he asked. Big green eyes blinked up at him, and it was obvious he'd been crying. "Do you want me to get Mummy?" Narcissa was always better at the consoling parts of parenting than he was.

"No!" Harry crawled out from under the desk and grabbed his father around the legs. "He won't be scared of Mummy! She's a girl."

Lucius picked him up, then sat Harry in his lap on the chair.

"Who?" he asked.

"Snake man."

"Did you have another nightmare?"

Harry sniffled and nodded, then rubbed his head. The scar wasn't as bad as the night before, but a pale pink line had appeared on the boy's skin.

"You want to tell me about it?"

"Snake man was there, and he was really scary. He ate up my Mum and Dad and he tried to get me, but..."

"But?"

"I hit him with Dobby's big spoon. Then there was a flash of green light and I got hit with lightning, and..." He ducked his head.

"Is there more?" Lucius asked. Harry nodded against his neck. "Well, what is it?"

Harry shook his head. "Not s'posed to say," he said.

"Why not? Do you think I'll get mad at you?"

"You said not to talk 'bout it."

A cold chill made the hairs on Lucius' neck stand high.

"What?"

Harry pointed to Lucius' left arm and Lucius grabbed it out of habit as though he'd felt it burn again.

"I'm sorry!" Harry cried, thinking he was in trouble.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Lucius said; he unbuttoned his sleeve and started to roll it up.

"Father, don't!" Harry said, trying to tug the sleeve back down. "You'll get in trouble!"

"I think it's okay, just this once."

When he'd rolled the sleeve to his elbow, Lucius laid his arm flat on the desk with the Dark Mark facing up.

"Did you see this in your dream, Harry?" he asked. Harry nodded. "Where?"

"Up in the sky."

Harry reached out to touch his father's arm, but as soon as his finger came in contact with the Mark, he jerked back.

"Oww!"

"What happened?" Lucius asked.

"My head hurts! Make it stop, Father."

Lucius put his sleeve back in place and held Harry tight; he had no idea how to tell the boy this was something he didn't know how to fix.

* * *

"It's not possible," Narcissa whispered.

She and Lucius watched through the widows as the boys chased each other on their practice brooms, idly wondering how they'd managed to remove the safety measures on them and convinced the brooms to fly at about three feet high. Dobby and Tripp had obviously tried to ground them, in the literal, as both elves were now clinging to twig ends while being whipped around in mid-air.

"There's simply no way a child so young could remember something so clearly."

"He saw the Dark Mark, Cissy," Lucius said. "Over his parents' house. You might be able to attribute the nightmares to all the questions he asked yesterday about the Potters, but as far as I know, none of our explanations included details of exactly how they died. He saw green. Green, Cissy! How many things could that be? I only know of one."

"And had it been that one, Harry'd be dead. He never could have survived it."

"Unless he's more powerful than we realized."

"There's no way an infant could have succeeded where grown men and women - Dumbledore himself - failed. His parents or the old man had to have done something, used their own power in tandem."

"Why does his scar hurt when he has the dreams? What makes the glamour break?"

"Perhaps he's doing it himself - accidental magic," Narcissa suggested. "He only found out about the changes to his appearance yesterday, maybe a part of him wants them undone."

"He screamed when he touched my arm, Cissy. I felt it myself. Not nearly so strong as a Summons, but a definite spark."

They both quickly hid their worried faces behind smiles as Draco buzzed the house near the window. He made an impressive stop-turn that sent Tripp flying, and shouted something that sounded like "Tripp's the Snitch!"

"Get the Snitch!" Harry joined in and they grabbed the long-suffering elf by his arms and flew off.

"He's just a little boy," Narcissa said, but Lucius was beginning to wonder.

* * *

Lucius paced the library floor, glancing back and forth every twenty seconds to see if the flames in the fireplace were even close to turning green. He had his wand in his hand and punctuated his thoughts by slapping it into his opposite palm as he mumbled.

Unfortunately for the dark clad figure stepping out of the fireplace, one of those mumbled words was taken to heart by the wand and a shot of red light zoomed toward the fireplace. Snape barely had time to deflect it.

"If I'd known we were going to duel, I'd have left the cape at home," he snarled. Lucius looked distracted, but an ambush wasn't completely out of character for the man; the slight weight of his own wand was a welcome comfort.

"Severus... what... oh!" Lucius lowered his wand and set it on a side table; Snape lowered his once the other man was disarmed. "Sorry, I've got a few things on my mind at the moment."

"Obviously. Why am I here?'

Lucius double-checked that no one was in the hall and slid the library door closed.

"Earlier today, did you by any chance, feel..."

"Feel what?"

"Your arm, did it... did it burn at all?"

Snape was suddenly angry.

"What are you playing at, Lucius?"

"I wish it were a joke, Severus, but this morning, I felt it burn and I want to know if I'm the only one."

"Burn how? Like a Summons? Is he back?"

"I don't think so, it was too weak for that."

"Maybe he's in a depleted state and seeking assistance..."

"Severus, I think... I think it was Harry."

"What?"

"We told Harry about his real family, nothing beyond telling him they died, though. Last night, he had a nightmare of that night. A snake man and a flash of green light, with the Dark Mark over his house."

"Impossible. He was too young."

"That's what Cissy said, but I found him hiding under my desk this morning. He pointed at my arm and said he'd seen the same picture in the sky in his dream. Then he touched my arm and it burned... it broke the glamours Cissy used to cover his scar, like it was a fresh wound, and he says it hurts. I was hoping... I don't really know if you can call it hope, but if I wasn't the only one who felt the burn, I could count it coincidence."

"I felt nothing, Lucius. Show me your arm."

Reluctantly and slowly, Lucius rolled his sleeve up to the elbow again. Snape did the same. On Snape's arm, the Mark was indistinct, but on Lucius' it was clear and dark as though freshly branded.

"Yesterday, mine looked like yours. As soon as Harry touched it, the lines flared and he cried out in pain."

This was not good. Not good at all.

"Why am I here, Lucius? You could have owled me the question."

"I want you to let him touch you and see if it happens again."

"No!"

"Severus, please. It's not like I can ring up a handful of Death Eaters, plop the boy on the couch, and say "line up for Harry Potter to touch your Dark Mark"!"

"I have no desire to be reminded of how the Mark looked when the Dark Lord was still active," Snape snarled.

Severus wasn't being difficult just to watch Malfoy twist, though that was certainly part of the appeal. He'd known Lucius long enough to know his mind, and had the ability to glean whatever he couldn't guess with a simple nudge into the man's thoughts. What happened when Lucius felt the Mark ignite on his arm was pure, unadulterated, terror. He'd actually convinced himself that the Dark Lord was dead and gone and beyond coming back into public view.

The instant the Mark responded to Harry's touch, he saw the deaths of his entire family. Lucius had never possessed great skill when keeping his mind closed, and a glamour wouldn't be enough to protect the boy from notice if Voldemort saw him even at a glance. Lucius also knew, without a doubt, that he'd never just hand the boy over on command, no more than he would hand Draco over to be slaughtered. No, he'd refuse and then his entire family was forfeit.

"I need to know," Lucius begged. "I need to know if there's something wrong with the boy, or if it's ... him... Please..."

"And if it is?"

A knock at the door interrupted Lucius' answer. He quickly replaced his sleeve and slid the panel open, reaching automatically to lift Harry onto his hip when he saw the child waiting outside. His face was scrunched up as though he'd been considering something very serious.

"Father, if I throw out a shirt and Dobby takes it out of the trash, is that the same as giving him clothes?"

"No," Lucius said. The topics the boys could come up with had stopped surprising him years ago.

"Good," Harry said. "Then I'm throwing out a shirt tonight."

"Why? Has Dobby said he needed something new?"

"Oh no, Father," Harry said, quickly. "But I spilled ...um... something... on Dobby's head and it turned his clothes bright... um... never mind..."

"And you want to fix it without having the elf think you're trying to get rid of him?"

Harry nodded.

"Well, the elf is mine, so even if you were to hand him clothes, it wouldn't matter until you're of age. But maybe you should ask him if he wouldn't rather have a new pillowcase. Elves don't much care for human clothes."

Snape sat quietly and listened to the boy on Malfoy's hip. He spoke like a true Malfoy, with the same inflections and tone, but Snape had certainly never heard a Malfoy offer to clothe a house elf, even if it wasn't the elf's fault his coverings had been destroyed. It was Lily's blood in him... it had to be. Potter was too much of a prat for Harry to have gotten anything decent out of him.

"Yes, Father, I'll ask him. And Dobby says he shouldn't be at all purple by suppertime... I mean..."

"I think we'll finish that particular discussion when we don't have company," Lucius said.

It was then that Snape realized the boy wasn't aware of his presence at all. Harry turned to see who Lucius was talking about, and upon seeing the dark Potions Master, he wriggled out of Lucius' grasp and hid behind his legs.

"Harry, Severus isn't going to hurt you," Lucius said. "Say hello."

"Hi," he said quietly, then tugged on his father's robes. "Can I go get Tripp?"

"Particularly fond of house elves, I see," Snape said, in what he hoped was at least a half-way friendly manner.

"Not exactly, Severus. We told the boys that you were Draco's godfather, and Draco promised to have Tripp poison you, should you prove threatening."

"Then I should probably point out that it's nearly impossible to poison a Potions Master," he said.

Harry gulped and disappeared completely behind Lucius.

"How is it that you manage to work in a school if children react this way just because you're in the room?" Lucius asked. For a moment, it looked as though he were chasing his tail, trying to get a hand on Harry.

Snape waved his wand and the boy levitated up in the air with much less grace than he showed on a broom.

"Looking for this?" Snape asked, coolly, directing the floating boy back in Lucius' direction. He caught the Harry as Snape released him, and set him on the ground. By now Draco'd gotten bored waiting for Harry to return and come looking for him. As soon as he saw Snape, Lucius had another child using him for a human shield.

"There's no need to be afraid of Severus," Lucius said.

"Indeed, your father asked me here to spend the day with you and your... brother."

"Are you going away, Father?" Draco asked. "Can't Dobby watch us?"

"Not if I want my house still standing when I get back."

"Button?" Harry suggested.

He was seriously afraid of Severus. Button was the strictest elf in the house, and if Lucius gave her an order concerning the boys, that order would be carried out if she had to string them on marionette posts.

"Your father's not going anywhere," Severus said. "But, as you heard, I'm a teacher, and since your formal education begins this year, he's asked me to see how well you take to instructions."

"What kind of instructions?" Harry asked in a perfect mirror of Malfoy suspicion.

"Have you ever seen a wand duel?"

"Severus..."

Snape scowled.

"I'm not going to duel the boys, Lucius. I just want to see how long it takes them to identify certain things by sight. They should be able to pick out a few specific attributes like shape and color. It's perfectly harmless when done on a practice dummy."

"Will we get to use a wand?" Draco asked hopefully.

"You're too young for your own wands," Lucius said.

The boys pouted, but followed behind Severus when he swept out of the room. They made it a game, trailing after him, each silently daring the other to see who could get closest to his swirling robes without stepping on them.

"If you rip them, I put you inside the training dummy," Snape said without turning around.

Both boys backed off to a respectable distance.

Outside, Snape set up the training area and had the boys sit on the ground while he fired shot after shot at the dummy. Inside fifteen minutes, they could recognize several attacks by color, even with a Silence over their ears to prevent them from hearing what Snape called out. Then he saw his chance. Snape muttered something they couldn't hear and a green jolt of light obliterated the dummy.

Draco clapped, enthralled by the sight, but Harry'd gone white. His little shoulders were shaking and there were tears in his eyes. He stood up and ran backward without putting his back to Snape; the child was in shock.

"What's wrong?" Snape asked, but Harry couldn't answer.

"Harry?" Draco asked, very concerned. He whispered, "Do I need to call Tripp?" in Harry's ear.

"Harry, look at me." Snape bent down beside him and tried to catch his frantic eyes. "Did you recognize that flash of light."

Harry nodded.

"From where?"

"It killed my Mum," he sniffled, reaching for Snape as though he expected a comforting hug. "And one hit me on my head," he said. To Snape's shock and horror the scar had bled through again as though the skin just split open.

"I'm sorry," Snape said. "I won't do that one anymore, okay? That's an advanced lesson you don't need anyway."

Harry nodded, satisfied.

"Would you like me to show you something a little more interesting?" Snape asked, hoping to cheer the boys up.

"What?" Draco asked.

"You'll see." Snape hissed out a command and a large snake appeared on the ground, close to the boys. He'd always heard small boys liked reptiles, and they'd certainly been a favorite of his when his Muggle school went on a trip to the zoo.

Draco froze, eyes wide, as the snake slithered closer. He didn't know what to do. Then Harry started screaming.

"Hey, you snake! You leave him alone!"

"S-s-s-s-sorry," the snake said. "Jus-s-s-s-st pas-s-s-s-s-ssing through." And he slithered away the opposite direction.

"And don't come back!" Harry yelled after him.

Draco ran toward the Manor, screaming for his mother, but Harry stayed put. The dark man stared at him, not moving and not talking.

It made Harry mad – this man had tried to hurt his brother, and he was supposed to be nice to them! He stomped over and kicked Snape hard in the shin.

"You don't scare my brother!" he shrieked, then ran off the same way Draco had gone.

And still, Snape stared. Harry Potter had just called a snake off his brother in Parseltongue. And if he didn't know better, he'd swear the boy had just cursed him in the same language.

* * *

_**Well well well, what have we here? Quite the interesting development, no? I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I will see you all next week! R&R!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A.N.:**__** Apologies for the lateness again, but I recently started a new job and things have been a little busy! Also - I made a Facebook page for my fanfictions, so you can follow me, comment, ask questions, see progress on my stories, and basically do whatever you want! Here is the link: LuthienSaralonde. So, in this chapter we see new developments forming with the Malfoys, Harry, and Snape. Stick around for the next chapter! Also, I want to give a quick shoutout to all of you wonderful people who have been reviewing, favoriting, and following both this story and myself. Thank you so much! You all make my day! Mwah! xoxo R&R!**_

* * *

Snape didn't mention what happened with the snake to Lucius, other than to say he'd made one for the boys and it hadn't gone well. It always paid to have extra information, and it was entirely possible that the Malfoys already knew of Harry's special gift.

At least that's what he'd tell them he assumed if they asked him later.

What he did do was tell Lucius how the boy reacted to his "killing" the practice dummy, and with the possibility of the child having witnessed and remembered his parents' murders, he agreed to the test Lucius wanted to perform. While Narcissa was busy calming Draco, Lucius led the other boy back into the library where Snape was waiting.

Harry stopped in the door, crossed his arms, and refused to go inside.

"Harry, come here," Lucius said.

"Nuh-uh."

"I taught you to speak better than that," Lucius scolded. "Come here."

"Make the bat leave."

"Henry James Black!"Lucius snapped. "Get over here this instant!"

Harry jumped and ran into the room, but he (rather dramatically) put his back to Snape.

"I want you to apologize to Severus for calling him a bat."

"He tried to feed Draco to a snake!"

"Harry..."

"M'sorry," he mumbled.

"For?" Lucius prompted.

"M'sorryyou'reabat. And m'sorryyoutriedtokillmybrother. And m'sorryIkickedyou. So there."

"Harry," Lucius pinched the bridge of his nose... if his hair hadn't already been silver, this child would have turned him grey. "Severus was NOT trying to kill your brother."

Harry scoffed. Over the top of his head, Lucius met Snape's eyes and mouthed, 'He kicked you?'

'Hard,' came the silent, and amused, answer.

"Okay, let's try something else," Lucius said. He nodded to the door, and Snape slid it shut.

Harry started to feel very nervous; he moved closer to his father. He didn't want to be closed up in a room with the bat. His fears faded somewhat when he felt Lucius' hands slide under his arms and lift him up so Harry was propped on his hip.

"Harry," he said. "Do you remember when you had your nightmare and you told me what you saw in the sky?"

Harry nodded.

"It looked like the Mar-"

Harry put both of his little hands over Lucius' mouth. "Shhh..." he hissed, jerking his head toward Snape, who laughed.

"So it's not only Draco you're protective of," Snape said.

Harry glared at him.

"Your father has very few secrets I don't already share." Snape reached for his own sleeve and rolled it up, much as Lucius had before. Harry's eyes went wide at the sight of the familiar brand on his forearm. "I assume that means you recognize the design?"

Harry looked at Lucius, who nodded for him to answer.

"It looks like Father's did, before."

"Before what?" Snape asked.

"Before my nightmare. After my nightmare, I pointed at Father's arm to show him what I saw, and when I touched it, it turned dark."

"Harry," Lucius said carefully, carrying the boy closer to Snape. "I want you to touch the skin on Severus' arm, just like you did mine. Just poke it with a finger. I'll be right here."

"I don't want to," Harry said. "It hurt my head."

"I know, Son, but this is the only way we can know for sure if the Mark is what caused your headache or if it was from the dream. And this time, Severus has a potion that will make the pain stop if it is the Mark."

Harry looked up at Snape, trying to decide if he could trust him or not.

"Promise?" he asked.

"I promise," Snape replied.

Harry reached out twice before he got up the nerve to touch the rough lines on Snape's arm, then he held his breath and snapped his hand out with his eyes closed and wrapped his little fingers as far around the man's forearm as he could reach.

"Oww!" Harry cried, and buried his face in Lucius' neck as Snape hissed in pain and drew back. He was holding his arm like Lucius had before, staring at the boy like he wasn't quite sure what he was. The jagged scar had appeared again, but the sight of fat tears on his pale cheeks brought Snape enough presence of mind to reach for the tiny potion bottle in his pocket.

Lucius held the bottle to Harry's lips and told him to swallow; soon the pain had faded into a bad memory.

"Thanks," he sniffled.

"Why don't you go find Dobby and tell him to get you a cookie," Lucius said as he put the glamour back on Harry's forehead.

"But Mummy said-"

"Bravery deserves reward," Snape said. "And now, all in one afternoon, you've defended your brother, your father, and been very brave in facing pain. I think even Mummy would agree that's worth a cookie."

Harry ran to the door, slid it open, and slipped out before they changed their minds.

"What does it mean, Severus?" Lucius asked when he was gone.

"I don't know," Snape answered. The sting still echoed in his skin. Lucius was right, the feeling was nothing compared to a summons, but something about the boy's touch had a taste of the Dark Lord to it so that the Mark itself responded. "All we can do is watch, wait, and hope no one gets in the way before we find our answers."

That's just what they did. They watched; they waited; they held their breath anytime they heard mention of the "missing" Potter child, but in time the Marks on Lucius and Snape returned to their inert state, and Harry's headaches stopped coming as his nightmares stopping plaguing him. He seemed a perfectly normal boy, and it was a full three years before that changed.

* * *

Even then, it was nothing to worry about; the child was simply ill. He was lethargic and moody and didn't feel like eating, so Narcissa let him sleep. There was no fever, and if need be she could call Severus to check on him, or have a Healer come from St. Mungo's if it proved more challenging than the Potions Master could handle. Most likely it was a little bug like children usually got now and then.

She sat at the table with Draco, eating her lunch, and thinking how she'd have Dobby take Harry a sandwich later to see if he could stomach it.

"Mum?" Draco asked. He was too old to call her "Mummy" now, that was just for babies.

"Yes, Poppet?"

"Who's Tom Riddle?"

The glass in Narcissa's hand shattered and the clear liquid inside mixed with her own blood as it ran through her fingers.

"TRIPP!" Draco howled. "TRIPP! MUMMY'S HURT! MUMMY'S HURT! BUTTON!"

The screeching brought not only the summoned house elves, but his father on the run, as well.

"Cissy?" he asked, startled by her glazed stare and the sight of Tripp cleaning up shattered crystal while Button saw to her slashed hand. "What on earth... what happened? Draco, are you all right?" He couldn't see any damage on his son. "Where's Harry?"

"Harry's sick in his room."

"What happened to Mummy?"

"She broke her glass in her hand... did I do something bad? I didn't know it was a bad question."

"What question?" Lucius asked frantically, Narcissa winced as Button pulled a particularly large shard of glass from her hand.

"T-t-t-tell your father what you said to me," she croaked on a dry throat. She'd've done it herself, but didn't think the words would come out.

"I only asked her about Tom," Draco said.

"Who's Tom?"

"Tom Riddle."

Lucius' legs gave out and suddenly, he was sitting on the floor.

"I'm sorry!" Draco said. "I didn't mean to make you upset, but I think he's bad to Harry."

"What?" Lucius asked, barely able to find the breath. "What's Tom Riddle got to do with Harry?"

The better question was how his sons had even learned of that name.

"We were hiding from Dobby and Tripp," Draco said, crying now because it seemed like the thing to do. "And we didn't want them to hear us, 'cause elves hear really good-"

"Well," Narcissa corrected automatically.

"Right, they hear really well. So we looked for some parchment to write on to talk, and there was this book... it didn't look important. It was just a kid's diary and there wasn't even any writing in it besides his name, so we thought it didn't matter."

"A book? Where did you find this book?"

"In the hidden room..."

"The room you're not supposed to go into?"

Draco bit his lip and nodded.

"We thought it was a good place to hide."

"What did the book do?"

"Nothing. We tore pages out and used them to write on...they're probably still on the floor down there, Father...we didn't clean up when we left."

"That's not important, Draco, tell me about Tom and Harry," Lucius said.

"When the elves found us, they were really mad because of where we were and we had to run out of the room. Harry put the book in his pocket and forgot about it until later. We were using it for drawing paper, only the paper in the book didn't act like the pages we tore out."

"What do you mean?" Narcissa asked.

"We'd draw a line and the book sucked it up so the ink went away - a whole inkwell full. There weren't spots or anything. It was fun at first, but then Harry got mad... the book ate a drawing he worked really hard on, but I still don't think it looked anything like a hippogriff."

"What did Harry do when he got mad?" Lucius asked, trying to keep him on topic.

"He took the quill and wrote "I hate this book!" really big on the pages. The ink sucked up, again, but then the book wrote back. It wanted to know who we were and why we hated it."

"It wrote back?" Narcissa gasped.

"Yes. We wrote it our names, and it said it was Tom. He was really nice at first, but then he'd only talk to Harry and wouldn't write back when I was in the room.

"Where's the book now?" Lucius asked.

"Harry has it," Draco said. "He won't let me see it anymore, but I know he's got it hidden in his room. I catch him scribbling in it sometimes, and talking to it. He told it all about his parents and the green light... it gives him headaches, but he won't throw it away like I told him to. I think it's making him sick... that's why I asked."

"Show me where it's hidden." Lucius reached for Draco's hand, never mind that he was eight and didn't hold hands any more.

Draco led him upstairs and they opened Harry's door, but instead of a sick little boy in bed, they saw him sitting cross-legged on top of the covers. And Draco didn't have to show his father the secret hiding spot in the closet, either. The book was right there, open, in Harry's lap. Harry'd fallen forward so his face was in the book; a quill was in his hand, and the glasses he'd worn for six months had dropped to the bed.

"Harry?" Lucius hurried over and shook his shoulder, but Harry barely mumbled a reply. "Draco, run and tell your mother to floo Severus. It's an emergency."

Draco nodded and rushed out while Lucius scooped Harry up in his arms and stuck the book in his pocket.

Ignoring Narcissa's frantic gasp, Lucius laid Harry on the couch in the library, near the fireplace, and double checked to make sure he still had a pulse. Then he snatched the book out of his pocket and slammed it down on the desk, reaching for a quill.

'What did you do to my son?' he wrote.

'To whom am I speaking?' appeared on the page.

He hesitated a moment, then continued:

'Lucius Malfoy.'

'Hello, Lucius. My name is Tom Riddle.'

Lucius had to forcibly stop his hand from giving Tom the kind of expletive laced answer he knew would only serve to amuse him.

'What happened to my son?'

'And who is your son?'

'Harry.'

Short answers were best.

'Can't be,' the diary wrote. 'Harry's an orphan. He told me. His parents were killed by a nasty snake man and a flash of green light... sounded frightful. I was very understanding. Ha. Ha. Ha. Such a trusting boy. More than willing to pour out his heart... and his soul...'

Lucius shoved the diary so hard it flew off the desk, along with the inkwell. Tom wasn't going to help at all - no surprise there. He'd picked up the book, intending to burn it in the fireplace, when the flames turned green and Snape stepped through carrying a small box.

"I gathered most of the healing potions I had," he said, seeing Lucius so close. "Narcissa didn't say what exactly had happened, but... what?"

"Harry and Draco met Tom Riddle," Lucius said.

"WHAT?" Snape almost dropped his potions box.

"Severus!" Narcissa snapped. "Could you ask your questions while tending to Harry."

Snape turned and was horrified by the pasty and all too corpse-like appearance of the child on the couch. Draco was still tugging Harry's arm, begging him to wake up.

"This isn't funny, Harry," he cried. "It's not funny. You can't sleep anymore!"

"Perhaps you should take Draco and let me tend to Harry?" Snape suggested.

Naricissa, somewhat numb, nodded and collected a kicking and screaming Draco from the floor. She hauled him out of the room even as he made it clear he had no intention of leaving.

"Is there any point in my trying to treat him?" Snape asked. "Something tells me this wasn't a usual childhood illness gone bad."

Lucius held out the diary, still bearing Tom's last reply, so Snape could read it.

"The boys were using it for scrap parchment until Harry started writing in it, and it started writing back. I was about to throw it in the fire when you came through."

Snape nodded and Lucius flung the book, but it just sat there in the flames, refusing to burn.

"I didn't think it would be that easy," Snape said. He wiped the flames out with a quick wave of his hand and retrieved the book, which wasn't even warm.

"Heart and soul," Lucius choked out. "Tom said Harry had poured out his heart and soul. That ... parasite ... was feeding off of him! Now look at him. There's hardly any life left in him at all." He took a very undignified and un-Malfoy-like seat on the floor beside Harry and took the child's small hand.

Snape, meanwhile, examined the book itself. There wasn't much about it that seemed special, no particular markings. However Tom Riddle had managed to infuse it with his own essence was a mystery.

"There are pages missing," Snape said, fingering the ragged remains on the inside spine.

"Draco said they ripped out sheets to write on."

"Did they behave like regular parchment?"

"Apparently."

"So it can be torn," Snape nodded. "If it can be torn, it's not invulnerable."

"So how do we destroy it?"

Snape considered the book for a moment, then sat where Lucius had been before, searched out a new quill, and righted the ink well.

'Hello Tom,' he wrote in a spidery scrawl.

'It wasn't nice to try and burn me, Lucius,' the book wrote back.

'I'm not Lucius.'

'Harry? Did you get the book back?'

'No.'

'Then who are you?'

'Someone who doesn't pander to dead men trying to steal their lives back from children.'

'Rather long for a name, don't you think?' Tom baited.

"Severus, what are you doing? Harry doesn't have time for this."

Snape just held up his hand for silence.

'You've always called me Severus.'

'Always?'

'Since I was a youth and pledged myself to your service.'

'Ah, then Severus, we are of a like mind! I'm pleased to meet you.'

'The pleasure is mine.'

A strange, and frightening smile appeared on Snape's mouth, one Lucius knew well. Snape had a plan, and apparently, Tom was playing along nicely.

'Lucius is one of your men as well. Harry is his son, and he would like to know if there's not some other way to aid you that wouldn't cost him the boy.'

'He should have had you ask in the first place,' the diary said. 'You have a much better head on your shoulders, and I am not unreasonable.'

The smile had become an all-out smirk.

'Take the boy's hand and write in the journal. You have my word no harm will come to him.'

'Then you have a problem, Tom.'

'Why is that? The boy is not dead, is he?'

'No, but his father and I both know what your word is worth. That leaves you rather destitute.'

"You're baiting him," Lucius snarled.

"Yes. I am."

'YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD OR YOU WILL NEVER HAVE THE BOY BACK.' appeared three inches high on the page.

'Hold your temper,' Snape admonished, and tore out a page.

'DO NOT PRESUME TO GIVE ME ORDERS.'

'That will cost you another page,' Snape said, then ripped another sheet out.

'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?'

'Stupidity was not among the vices I thought you possessed, Tom,' Snape said. 'Pride, insanity, a horrible sense of judgment, and deplorable people skills, yes, but never stupidity.'

Another page tore out.

'STOP IT!'

'That's no way to treat one of your staunchest supporters, Tom. If you keep throwing these tantrums, there won't be enough pages in your diary left to entice the next poor soul to write.'

'I COMMAND YOU TO STOP DESECRATING MY DIARY AT ONCE.'

Rip.

'HOW DARE YOU PRESUME TO DESTROY ONE OF MY HORCRUXES?'

'Thank you, Tom,' Snape said.

'FOR WHAT?'

'Telling me how to save the child. A Horcrux is easily destroyed if you know the means.'

'YOU DARE -'

'I do,' Snape interrupted the flow of Tom's words. 'But before I do, I have one parting word for you. Something I've wanted to say for years...'

'AND WHAT WOULD THAT BE YOU WORTHLESS, TRAITOROUS, SNIVELLING-'

'CRUCIO.'

Snape made the word elaborate and ornate, then slammed the diary shut as it began to seep into the page. An explosion of screams etched from front page to last, so forcefully that it shook in his hand, and he tethered the book shut.

"You can destroy it?" Lucius asked. "You can save Harry?"

"Fiendfyre," Snape said. "But give Tom twenty minutes or so to relish his last moments."

* * *

After the diary incident, Lucius was much more careful about the rooms in his house and what they contained. He wasn't about to remove all of his artifacts, but he made sure extra precautions were in place so that neither of his sons had a chance of coming into contact with them. And for another three years, things went as planned.

Before they knew it, the time had come for the Hogwarts letters to be sent. As with the last time, Lucius made sure Harry wasn't at the Manor and that Draco was. This time the excuse was short day trips so each of the boys got some time alone with their father; he just made sure to schedule them in the right order. When Harry's letter came, it was to a villa on the continent, and as soon as he'd given the owl which delivered it a few treats for the extra distance it had to fly, Lucius Apparated them home and took Draco out on a boating trip.

And since Henry Black received no letter, everyone was fairly certain the poor child was, in fact, a Squib.

Even with the insane antics and near misses courtesy of Dumbledore's meddlesome ways, and even with the oddities surrounding Harry's scar, and even with the dangers that seemed to stalk the boys (mostly Harry) at every turn, the Malfoys were certain that the last month before the boys officially started Hogwarts was the most stressful string of days they could remember. The letters meant it was time to go school shopping, and that meant Diagon Alley. There were some things that simply had to be tended to in person.

They planned to go early, and hopefully avoid the biggest crowd of shopping students, and more importantly their parents. Supplies were broken up amongst the boys - who would have to stand for their robe fitting, books - handled by Narcissa, quills/ink/paper/supplies - handled by Lucius, and the potions ingredients Severus offered to find himself. That meant fewer stores for the boys to go into and fewer chances for them to interact with too many strangers. The only thing that might prove problematic was securing wands.

It was no secret what the general public said about "poor Henry Black" and his assumed condition, nor was it a secret how Lucius and Narcissa doted on him... supposedly to make up for it. Anyone who cared to notice them out and about would assume they were buying him supplies like Draco's to placate him and put off explaining why he wouldn't get to go to Hogwarts with his friends, but they couldn't fake the wand purchase. Squibs couldn't use a wand, nor would Ollivander sell them one, but that was a bridge to be crossed when reached.

At least the Death Eaters kept their Marks covered; there was no chance of Harry accidentally brushing up against one and triggering a panic attack.

As early as possible on the first day of the school season, Lucius, Narcissa, Draco, and Harry stepped into their fireplace in the library and flooed through to Diagon Alley. Snape was waiting there; it seemed to be some sort of transit station on the Floo Network where shoppers could arrive and depart without interrupting businesses or households.

Lucius and Snape headed off to buy their assigned purchases as quickly as possible while Narcissa settled the boys in at Madame Malkins.

"Two sets of school robes, please," she said. "I'll be back as soon as I get their books."

Madame Malkin gave her a knowing look, almost cried at the sight of the child she assumed would have no reason to use the robes she was about to fit, and led them to the back of the store where they were instructed to stand on a pair of stools.

It was so hard to stand still when all either of them wanted to do was explore every shop in the Alley. There was a Quidditch supply and an owlery and ice cream vendor, and clothes were not on their list of exciting things, but Draco and Harry tried to obey Madam Malkin's instructions while her measuring tape and tack pins fit their clothes.

"It's almost time," Draco said. "I'm so excited!"

"I know! Only a month to go!"

"What House do you think you'll be in?" Draco asked. "I'm sure I'll be a Slytherin, but..."

"I hope I am, too," Harry said. "It would be great if we were in the same House, especially with Uncle Severus as the House Head."

"What if you're not?"

"Well, I was raised with Slytherins, so maybe that's enough. But Mum says that my parents were in Gryffindor, so I'll probably end up there...maybe I can talk the hat into Ravenclaw if it says no to Slytherin."

"That wouldn't be so bad," Draco said. "At least then, when Father tells you not to be smart, you'll have an excuse to say you can't help it. All Ravenclaws are smart."

It was at this point that they became aware of the frantic shushing sound coming from a group of people off to the side. A somewhat round and squishy woman with red hair was trying to herd a half dozen children with the same. The children were looking at Draco and Harry and whispering, and their mother (the boys assumed) was telling them to be quiet and stop staring.

"Weasleys," Draco said. "They have to be."

Harry nodded knowingly.

"Oi, what's that mean?" One of them shouted, despite his mother's warnings.

"That you all have red hair," Harry said, honestly. "Mum said there's a Mr. Weasley at the Ministry and he has many red haired children."

"Oh..." said the Weasley boy, who'd assumed their words were an insult. He'd been ready to start a fight.

"So you are Weasleys?" Harry asked.

"Yes indeed, Dear," the mother said. "My boy Ron's starting school this year. The twins here, Fred and George are already there, and so's my boy Percy." She beamed at a snobbish red-head checking his robes in the mirror. "Percy was just made Gryffindor Prefect, so if you end up there, he'll look after you." When Percy didn't take the hint and say hello, she dragged him away from the mirror by his ear.

"Ow! Mum! That's no way to treat a school Prefect," he protested.

"Say hello to the nice young men, Percy."

"Hi," he said quickly, rubbing his ear, then ran back to the mirror to see how his shiny Prefect badge looked on his robes.

"Honestly," the mother huffed. "That boy's lucky manners aren't a requirement, or he'd be demoted to floor scrubber! Bill and Charlie never gave me this kind of trouble!" she shouted at Percy.

Draco and Harry both snickered.

Another shop matron approached Mrs. Weasley and asked about robes for the other boys, but instead of new ones, Mrs. Weasley handed over a pile of hand-me-downs and instructed her to fit them as needed onto the other three boys.

"Ginny's not quite old enough for Hogwarts, yet," she said, and instructed the only girl child to sit on the bench and wait.

"Are you all in Gryffindor?" Harry asked.

"Yep," one of the twins said. "Everyone since our great-great-grandfather!"

"So brothers get to stay together?"

"Usually," Mrs. Weasley said, and Harry and Draco smiled at each other.

"Stand still!" Madam Malkin ordered, and they snapped back to attention. "The next young man who moves off his stool gets to start school in a girl's uniform!"

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Mrs. Weasley asked, approvingly. None of her boys was so much as twitching, terrified she'd make good on the threat.

"Mummy," Ginny tugged her skirt.

"What?"

"Can't I get a robe?"

"Not yet. You're not going to Hogwarts this year."

"But he's getting one." She pointed to Harry. "And he's not going, either."

"Hush, Ginny. Don't be rude."

"I am too going to Hogwarts," Harry said. "I got my letter and everything." Silly girl didn't know what she was talking about, but...why did all the Weasleys suddenly look so nervous? And why was Madame Malkin not looking him in the eye anymore?

"I'm sorry about Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said. "She talks faster than she thinks sometimes."

"Why wouldn't I be going?" Harry asked.

"Ignore her," Draco said, angry. "She's just a girl and she doesn't know anything! Maybe it's the hair."

"It is not my hair!" Ginny jumped off the bench and balled her hands on her hips. "He's not going 'cause he's a Squib and Squibs can't go! That's the rules!"

"GINEVRA WEASLEY!" her mother raged. "SIT DOWN AND ZIP YOUR MOUTH THIS INSTANT!"

Ginny jumped back to her previous position, and everyone in the fitting area suddenly thought the ground was the best place to put their eyes. Only Draco and Harry were looking up.

"What's she mean?" Harry asked. "I'm not Squib... am I? Draco, am I a Squib?'

"NO!" Draco snapped. "And that was a horrible thing to say! I've seen you do magic! Remember Dobby's blue nose?"

"But you were there, too. What if you did it and not me?" Harry asked. "What if I can't because of... you know." He pushed his fringe up and pointed at the bare patch of skin under it.

Draco looked away because he didn't know how to answer; it would be horrible if Harry couldn't go with him. He'd have to go to... Muggle school.

"If you were a Squib, Uncle Severus would have noticed," Draco said after thinking it out. "He wouldn't teach a Squib potions stuff."

"I guess not."

"Don't listen to my sister, mate," the one called Ron offered up. "She's always telling weird stories... she thinks a garden gnome lives in her boots when she's not wearing them. Right mental if you ask me." He lowered his voice to a whisper and spun his finger by his head. "I think George dropped her down the stairs when she was a baby."

"RONALD!"

"Sorry, Mum."

That was the last thing Ron was able to get away with saying because the Weasleys' mother Stuck his mouth shut.

Ten minutes later, Narcissa Malfoy returned to inspect her boys, and was slightly puzzled as to why they looked so downtrodden. When she'd left them, they were practically levitating.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Don't you like your robes?"

"They're fine."

"Yeah."

"What's the matter?" she asked again when they were outside the store, just in case it was something inside that had them upset.

"Nothing."

"Nothing."

Puzzled, she stopped at the ice cream vendor and talked him into opening shop early. Even he could tell something was upsetting the boys and was happy to oblige in a couple of chocolate bars with fizzle sprinkles. They took their ice cream and nibbled a bit, but neither was too enthusiastic, and when Lucius and Snape joined them outside, there was still plenty of ice cream on the sticks.

Lucius looked at his wife for a clue as to why they were so glum, but she shrugged her shoulders. While Snape shrunk their purchases and put them into a small bag, Lucius turned to the boys.

"Did someone hurt you?" he asked.

"No," Harry said.

"Did someone say something to you?" he asked.

"Just a stupid girl," Draco said.

"Was she pretty?" Narcissa asked, hoping it was just embarrassment over thinking a girl was no longer "gross" that made them clam up.

"No!" Draco snapped. "She was horrible and mean and called Harry a... she called him a really bad thing!"

"What did she call him?" Lucius asked, assuming the answer had something to do with his own reputation.

"Am I a Squib?" Harry asked.

"She called you a Squib?"

He nodded.

"I don't want to be a Squib and go to Muggle school! I want to go with Draco," Harry pleaded. "Can't you fix me?"

"Yeah, give him a potion, Uncle Severus!"

"I don't care if it's the worst tasting one you've ever made! I'll drink a whole litre!"

"Boys, no potion can fix a Squib," Snape said, and despite his best eleven-year-old efforts, Harry started to cry.

"But I don't want to be a Squib! I want to go with Draco!"

"If Harry can't go, I won't either! Hogwarts is stupid!"

"Harry," Narcissa said, softly. "You're not a Squib. You couldn't fly your broom if you were, and you saw your letter from the school. Your father has both yours and Draco's framed in his office."

"But that stupid girl said-"

"Do you remember how we told you everyone thinks your name is Henry Black?" Lucius asked.

"Yes."

"People think Henry Black is a Squib because no Hogwarts letter was sent to him, but they don't send letters to people who don't exist."

"So I can do magic?" Harry asked.

"Of course you can."

"And he's coming to school with me?" Draco asked.

"If I have to send him by owl," Narcissa said.

The idea of Harry being flown into Scotland by owl was enough to make them all laugh. Harry and Draco discovered that they both really liked fizzle sprinkles, and the ice cream was gone in seconds.

"If you're sending me by owl, you'll have to buy me one," Harry said. He'd spied a spectacular pair of amber eyes staring at him from the owlery window.

"Or you could buy us both brooms," Draco suggested. "We could fly ourselves to school... you know, if we missed the train or something. That way we have a plan B."

"I don't seem to remember either of my sons being part goblin, and yet you're both trying to wheedle me into very one-sided agreements," Lucius said with mock severity.

They grinned, and Narcissa wasn't quite fast enough to stop them both from wiping their mouths with their sleeves.

"Well, the letters say no broomsticks for first years, so I guess that means you'll have to make do with the owls," Lucius said. He'd barely finished his sentence when both boys were pressed against the glass to see what kind of owl they wanted.

"I want the eagle owl!" Draco said.

"I want the white snowy!" Harry pointed to the owl in the window.

And a short time later, Banshee and Hedwig were in hand in traveling cages. All that was left now was Ollivander's, and thankfully, no one else was ahead of them in the store, so they wouldn't have to wait.

The store hadn't changed a bit since Lucius and Narcissa had arrived as wide eyed children themselves, except perhaps to add another layer of dust or twelve. They wound their way through the stacks of boxes until, inevitably, they were pinned in place by the appearance of two luminous eyes in the darkness. And, as every child did, Harry and Draco jumped at the appearance.

"I knew I'd be seeing you before long," Ollivander said. "I trust your wands are still in working order." He looked to the elder Malfoys and Snape.

"Of course," Lucius said.

"And now it's young Draco's turn, is it?" Ollivander asked. "And young Mr. Bl- well, well, this is an unexpected surprise. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter."

"Ollivander," Lucius said in a warning tone.

"No need to worry, Mr. Malfoy. I've kept many secrets over the years, and most not half so happy as one that keeps a boy with the family he loves. Now, who's first."

"I'm older!" Draco shot forward.

"Then I guess you're up, Mr. Malfoy."

It took twenty-seven wands before Ollivander located one that responded to Draco's hand.

"It's warm," Draco said, happily surprised. "I can feel it humming!"

"Always a good sign," Ollivander said, then clapped as a spray of sparks shot from the end of the wand.

Draco swished his new wand back and forth like a sword and ran back to his father while Ollivander helped fit Harry. It took thirty-four wands before Harry found one compatible with his hand, but instead of clapping, all Ollivander said when he found it was, "Curious".

The old man continued to babble things like "curious" and "why not" as he led the family to the till to pay. Narcissa took the boys to gawk at the Quidditch store while Lucius and Snape stayed behind.

"What, exactly, is so curious about Harry's wand?" If no one else was going to ask the question, Snape would.

"That's quite the singular wand," Ollivander said.

"Aren't they all?" Snape remarked.

"Some more than others. This one, for instance, has a very rare phoenix tail feather inside. There was only one other made from that same creature, and what makes it curious is that this wand chose as its master the victim of the first. Though I'd have never sold the first had I known what its future would be."

"Harry's wand is the brother to You Know Who's?" Lucius asked. His hand went slack and the Galleons spilled out of it onto the counter.

"It would seem so," Ollivander said. "Great and terrible things came from him, and I expect great things may be in store for young Harry as well."

He closed the till and faded back into the shadows, leaving Lucius and Snape to ponder one more strange "coincidence" in Harry's life.

Outside, they found Harry and Draco with their faces pressed against the Quidditch store's window, goggling at the Nimbus 2000 on display. Even from across the street, and with no need of Legilimens, both men knew exactly what was on their minds, and that their mother was dangerously close to dashing inside to buy them what they wanted.

"No," Lucius said.

"But what harm could it do?" Narcissa asked. "They could use the brooms at home before they go to school."

"Then what will we have to buy them for Christmas?" He didn't bother to supply the answer that was most likely "The Nimbus 2001".

Resigned to their fate of not having the best brooms ever, Draco and Harry turned away, shoulders slumped as though they were the most wretchedly mistreated children alive. This was the point Lucius decided to put their station in society into perspective.

"Look at you two with the sour faces," he said, disapprovingly. "You've both gotten bags full of new things today and you're sulking because you got one "no". You could have to use second hand things, like the Weasleys." He pointed to the army of redheads coming out of the Owlery. "And then you'd have to share a mangy old rat between you."

Draco stuck his tongue out at Ginny Weasley as they passed, and Harry mumbled something that sounded like "stupid girl". They both watched as the one named Ron grimaced at his "new" pet while his older brother carried a magnificent owl.

"Or, you could be like that pitiful bushy mess over there," Lucius said. "And have Muggles for parents."

A pair of obvious Muggles walked slowly down the steps of Gringotts behind a skipping mass of brown hair that may or may not have had a face. A harried goblin was slowly trying to explain the conversion of pounds to Galleons as the completely lost couple worried over deciphering the new money.

"Just look at them. They can barely function," he said, distastefully.

"But I was going to be raised by Muggles," Harry argued.

"Yes, and we rescued you just in time," Narcissa scoffed. "At least that poor child looks cared for. She'll have an awful time trying to find her way, I suspect. Well, I guess we should be off, then..."

But her sons were already off. Or more to the point, Harry'd run off and Draco had followed, and neither of them returned to their parents when called. The Malfoys were left no choice but to follow, at a more respectable pace, of course. And since Snape was still carrying the bag, he went too - grumbling that "pack mule" wasn't among the listed duties of "godfather" when he'd signed on.

"Hi!" Harry rushed the girl.

"Hello," she beamed with surprisingly large teeth.

"Your Mum and Dad are really Muggles?" he asked.

"They're dentists," she said, proudly. Harry wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but she sounded happy with it. "My name is Hermione Granger."

"I'm Har... er.. Henry," Harry said. "But you can call me Harry. That's my brother, Draco."

"Harry and the Dragon," Hermione grinned. "Sounds like a bedtime story."

"You're very strange," said Draco.

"Well that's an awful thing to say!" Hermione pouted.

Behind him, Lucius cleared his throat. When the boys turned to face their father, he was giving them the "this is not appropriate public behavior" glare, or as Harry and Draco called it - Look Number Three.

"These are the Grangers, father," Draco said, hoping to smooth things over by offering a proper introduction.

"They're dentists," Harry added.

Lucius took Mr. Granger's offered hand a bit awkwardly, but gave him the same "public" smile he used when meeting people at social functions. Narcissa did the same.

"This is my Mum and Dad," Harry said. "Their name's Malfoy, but mine's not. They sort of adopted me because my family were bad people."

"Harry." Lucius put a hand on his shoulder to stop the babbling.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Granger," Narcissa said in her "dinner party" voice. "What exactly is a dentist? Is that an occupation or some sort of social designation?"

While the Grangers filled the Malfoys in on the specifics (and horrors!) of pulling and repairing teeth, Hermione pried information out of Draco and Harry, though how she had room for more in her head, they didn't know. She seemed to be full of facts already.

"Is it true that we go to school from Platform 9 3/4?" she asked. "I just don't see how a thing is possible. There's Platform 9 and Platform 10, but how is there something in between, and how is it that no one knows it's there? Oh, you both have owls. I don't have one, and my parents aren't sure that they should buy me one, because it might disturb the neighborhood if suddenly there was an owl bringing the post, but that's silly because it brought me my letter and no one cared in the least. Maybe I can talk them into a cat... I don't think I'd like a toad at all. I've gotten my books, and they're ever so interesting. I think I read two of them straight through last night, and I got so many, even some that weren't on the list, that Mum and Dad had to change more money so I could get the rest of my things! And did you know the bank's run by goblins? Real goblins! We haven't got a vault, of course, but they said they could set one up for me, and they were really quite helpful when we asked them questions. And... my goodness... who is that scary looking man behind your parents?"

It took a few seconds for either of them to realize there had been a question at the end of that ramble, and both boys were rather shocked to realize that Hermione hadn't so much as taken a breath during the whole thing. She was still beaming with her too large teeth and waiting for an answer.

"Well?" she asked again. "Don't you know who he is?"

"That's Uncle Severus," Harry said. "But you can't call him that. He's a teacher at Hogwarts."

"Professor Snape," Draco said. "He's the Head of Slytherin House... you don't think you'll be a Slytherin, by any chance?" He was hoping for a no.

Hermione glanced at the only adult who so far hadn't bothered to smile and gulped. Under his breath, Snape hissed something that sounded like "Ravenclaw", and rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what House, I'll be in," Hermione said, "But I've read all about them, and Slytherin's in the dungeon and I don't think I'd like to live in a dungeon for seven years."

Draco and Harry seemed very relieved.

"And did you know that there was someone famous going to be in our class?" Hermione asked. "Well, of course you did, because you're from here, but I'm not, so I only found out about it last night when I read it in one of my books, but there's a very famous boy going to start with us."

The Malfoys and Snape all went a bit rigid, but that may have been because the dentists were detailing a root canal at that moment.

"I was hoping to see him today, but no one really knows what he looks like, do they?" Hermione continued to chatter. "It seems like someone would have seen him in the last ten years, but there aren't any pictures or anything, except the ones of him as a baby, and none of those show his scar, but the books say he has a scar. All of them say it, you know, and the scar is probably more famous than he is, but like I said, I'm sure you already know that because Harry Potter is probably the most famous name in the whole world to you... and it's kind of funny because your name's Harry! Of course, it's Harry Black, and not Harry Potter, but, well, Harry's a fairly common name, isn't it."

"Father, my head hurts," Harry said.

"Mine, too," said Draco.

They'd have sworn they heard the same from Snape.

Lucius made the quick excuse of needing to get the boys home and their purchases packed away, and said they really didn't want to waste too much of the Grangers' time. Narcissa was looking a bit pale since the mentions of a dental drill and said she needed to lie down. Draco was pulling Harry away as quick as he could, afraid Hermione would take a breath and talk for another twenty minutes, and Harry had his hand over the spot where his scar was. The way the girl was beaming at him made him think that just maybe she could see it. Snape stepped between them, gave a generic line about looking forward to seeing Hermione in class, and they headed back to the Floo site, and finally the Manor.

Lucius tried very hard not to wipe his hand on his handkerchief until he got home, but it wasn't easy with Muggle all over him.

* * *

_**Thanks for reading, and I will see you guys next week! Don't forget to follow me - if the link doesn't work, all you have to do is type /LuthienSaralonde after the .com on facebook. Thank you so much, and I can't wait to chat with all of my followers!**_

_**Lots of love,**_

_**Laerwen**_


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